POKéMON: Chronicles of ORRE
by Looneyman
Summary: 3 Years after XD, CIPHER make a comback in the ORRE region, forcing JOVI to go on the journey her brother did three years ago. More shadows, more friends, more enemies and a new XD SHADOW. Rating may go up in later chapters. UPDATED
1. Jovi's diary

Disclaimer: POKéMON, POKéMON XD: Gale of Darkness, Shadow attacks and all related characters, places and items are trademarks of Nintendo, Creatures, Gamefreak, The POKéMON Company and Genius Sonority. This story is written with no profit motive.

A/N: This is my first POKéMON Fic so be nice. It's intended to be my little sequel to Gale of Darkness. Should Nintendo, Genius Sonority Etc. decide to do a sequel, I hope it's not like mine.

**Jovi's Diary**

It had been three years since Grand Master Greevil had been defeated and Cipher disbanded. The incident had been known as the second shadow incident. Greevil and Eldes had gone to prison on their own will, but were eventually released after serving a 2-year sentence. They both acknowledged their mistake and had both vowed to change their ways. The third person, Ardos, had disappeared after the incident. Nobody knew where he was now, not even Eldes. Greevil had died of old age soon after his release while Eldes became a very renowned trainer. He often had battles with the hero of the incident, but was always defeated. Evice, the villain from the first shadow incident, had still not been released, as he refused to acknowledge his mistake. After the incident, the young hero from POKéMON HQ lab left the lab on his own POKéMON training journey. He had taken all of the Shadow POKéMON that he had purified with him. He did occasionally contact his mother Lily but he never returned to the lab to visit. He had since become a very powerful trainer, and a frequent star in the ORRE colosseum. Chobin was still travelling the whole of the ORRE region, trying to prove that the ROBO Groudon was the ultimate machine. Because of this, Professor Kaminko was always working alone. Because of the success of the ROBO Kyogre, he was working on a third ROBO POKéMON, though nobody knew anything about this new machine. Makan still had the ROBO Kyogre. Although he never used it, he never dismantled it either. Jovi was now the strongest trainer in the POKéMON HQ lab. She had matured greatly since the incident; she now no longer jumped ahead without thinking. She did miss her brother, but she wasn't lonely. She had her two POKéMON Plusle and Minun. The Plusle was female and was nicknamed Plipli while the Minun was male and nicknamed Mimi. It was clear, even to Jovi, that the two POKéMON were more than a little friendly towards each other. She had to keep a close eye on them, and she did this very well. It also meant that they worked much harder in battle situations. Because of this, the two had never lost a double battle as of yet. They were also unusual as they were both able to use the move Water Pulse, which they can't normally learn. This was discovered two days ago, when a trainer using a pair of Geodude's challenged Jovi. When Plipli got hit by a Tackle attack, Mimi leapt to her defence, only to feel the effects of a rock tomb attack. When Plipli saw this, she let out a cry and released a Water Pulse by accident, instantly knocking out one of the Geodude's. Plipli was then pinned to the ground by the remaining Geodude's Take Down attack. Mimi gave a cry of panic and released a water pulse himself. As a result, Jovi was able to win the battle, but she was truly stunned that the two could use Water Pulse, as was Jovi's opponent. Not even Professor Krane was able to figure out how the two could use the attack. Jovi was never defeated in any battle that she was in while she was at the lab. She occasionally left the lab to visit her friend Emili, often ending up in battles at Gateon Port. Emili's mother Acri had finally published a book on the exploits of Jovi's brother against Cipher. Jovi had been given a copy of the book by Emili as a birthday present. She was about to settle down to head to bed after reading another chapter. She now slept in the room that used to belong to her brother. It had been redecorated soon after her brother's departure. It now had a poster of the young hero and a picture of her with Plipli and Mimi. Jovi was much tidier than she used to be, keeping all her books and pieces of paper in files and on shelves. She had also begun writing a diary since her brother left. She always wrote an account of what had happened during the day in the diary before she settled down for the night. She was busy writing in her diary while Plipli and Mimi were sitting on the end of the bed looking at her. They normally slept next to her in bed, while snuggling up to each other. They were busy waiting for her to finish writing in her diary so they could get some sleep.

* * *

"Dear diary…

It has been 3 years to the day since big brother left on a training journey. Jovi wonders whether he'll come back or not. I do miss him but Jovi's not lonely. Jovi has Plipli and Mimi to keep me company. Krane still has no idea about their Water Pulse ability. Lily recons that their brain patterns may have mutated, whatever that means. Jovi doesn't want to know the truth. Plipli and Mimi are perfect as they are. Emili finally got her first two POKéMON today. She received a Volbeat and an Illumise from Acri. They're pretty cool POKéMON. Jovi looks forward to battling them at some point. After visiting Emili, I went to visit Kaminko. I still don't know what he's working on. All I can tell is that it looks like a long green snake. I also look high and low for Chobin, but can't find him anywhere. Jovi thinks he's run away as he didn't want to work for Kaminko anymore. On the way back, I was challenged by a cooltrainer called Judy. She had a Meowth and a Mankey. I won with my usual combination, Plipli's Thundershock implemented by Mimi's Helping Hand. I nearly got defeated when the Mankey started using Dig but was eventually able to evade with Quick Attack from both Plipli and Mimi. It was funny when the Mankey was shocked from both sides almost as soon as it surfaced. Plipli and Mimi really did a great job in that battle. Jovi has learnt how much they help each other out by watching them battle. When I finally returned to the lab, I found Krane holding the Snag Machine that big brother had used 3 years ago. I always wonder why he won't dismantle it. He says that we may need it again, but Jovi seriously doubts that. Big brother completely disbanded Cipher when he purified that XD001, the Shadow Lugia. Jovi wonders what became of that Lugia. The Purify chamber hasn't been dismantled either. All it's doing right now is gathering dust in a locked room. Jovi thinks the device should be dismantled, as it useless right now. Krane insists that it might be needed again and everyone else agrees with him. Why do people not listen to my opinions? Jovi wishes she knew. Lily promised me a surprise tomorrow. I can't wait to see it. Jovi hopes it's something nice. After having some dinner, I spent the rest of the evening playing with Plipli and Mimi. Today, I threw balls for them to hit with their Thundershock and Water Pulse attacks. Krane wants to experiment on them to see how they can use Water Pulse. Jovi won't allow it because Plipli and Mimi could get hurt or even forget how to use Water Pulse. Playing with Plipli and Mimi was the last thing I did today, but it lasted for quite sometime. Tomorrow I'll see what Lily has got me and will write about it tomorrow night."

* * *

After writing in her diary, Jovi finally put the diary on its place on the shelf. That was the average length of her diary entries every night. She was now fairly tired from writing. Plipli and Mimi just watched her place the diary on the shelf and walk back over to the bed. Jovi climbed under the bed covers and rested her head on her pillow. That was when Plipli and Mimi came bounding over to her. They went over to the pillow and lay down next to her head. Jovi turned her head and looked at the two POKéMON.

"Plipli, Mimi, you two have been brilliant today. Jovi's very proud of you."

"Plusle, Plusle!" Plipli exclaimed

"Minun, Minun!" Mimi added. Jovi laughed joyously. She loved her POKéMON as much as anyone. She watched as the two POKéMON snuggled together next to her right hand side. They always slept together, wherever they were. That's why Jovi had to keep a close eye on them. So far, they had been well behaved. That was just how she liked them. Within a few seconds, the two cheering POKéMON had fallen asleep together. Jovi softly stroked them on their heads before looking up at the ceiling. She also glanced around the room and looked at the poster of her brother. She continued to look at the poster, as if she was waiting for it to suddenly come alive. The poster showed her brother in his usual stance, with the Snag Machine on his left arm. His Eevee was with him, as it was before it evolved. Jovi couldn't remember what it evolved into, but it had helped him capture and purify XD001.

"Brother, I wonder where you are now." Jovi said into space. She wanted to go on a journey to find her brother but Lily wouldn't allow it, even though that Jovi had Plipli and Mimi. Jovi had no idea why this was, but was determined to go and find him one day. There was, in fact, a lot that she wanted to do. She wanted to take Plipli and Mimi with her on a POKéMON journey. So far, Lily had not allowed it. All Jovi could do was wait until Lily would allow it. She gave one glance at Plipli and Mimi. They were fast asleep and snuggled together. Jovi always thought that they looked very cute when they were snuggled together. She sighed to herself before falling asleep herself.

* * *

That very night, just north of Mt. Battle, a transport train was passing through the region. The train worked with magnets that allowed it to hover above the rails. The train was painted white and red along the side and was titled the Frontline express. It was currently passing through a semi-forest area and was heading towards a large port, larger than Gateon. While the train was travelling through a canyon however, it was ambushed by a squadron of helicopters. The helicopters flew around the train and attempted to slow it down. The train driver was able to keep up the speed until it saw an object on the tracks. The object was roughly the size of a grown human, but as it came into focus, it appeared to have four very thin arms. Not much else was recognisable because the whole thing was as black as the night sky. Without warning, the object thrusts it's arms forward and stopped the fast moving train. Its arms suddenly appeared to fuse together and thicken. Once the train had fully stopped, the object changed shape again, this time sprouting several arms. It then grabbed the front of the train and lifted it completely over its head, forcibly throwing the train driver out of the train. It then took the train into the sky, followed by the helicopters. The train driver just sat on the ground where he was just looking up into the air. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. He had to tell the authorities.

A/N: Don't expect a rapid update on this story, as I'm juggling a lot of projects at the moment (mostly college work). I'll update as fast as I can.


	2. A thug of shadow

**A thug of shadow**

Jovi awoke fairly early the following morning. This was mostly because she was excited about what Lily had for her. The first thing she did when she woke up was look at her two pokémon. They were both still asleep cuddled together. She then had a look around her room. Not much had changed but she did notice a package on her desk. It was wrapped in brown paper and tied with white string. Someone must have snuck into her room during the night and placed the package on her desk. Jovi climbed out of bed to have a look at the package but disturbed Plipli and Mimi in the process. The two pokémon woke up and gave a little squeal to tell Jovi that they were awake. She looked over and immediately realised that she had woken the two up.

"Oh, sorry I woke you." Jovi said.

"Plusle, plusle." Plipli replied. Plipli then became interested at what Jovi was looking at. And because Plipli was interested, Mimi was also curious. The two cheering pokémon jumped off of the bed and then onto the desk. They both began looking at the package that had been left there. It was addressed to Jovi from Lily. Jovi became excited and began to open the package. Inside the package was a silver box, about 1 foot square. It was also about 1 inch thick, with what looked like a severing running around the outside of the box, but only on three sides. This indicated that it opened. Out of curiosity, Jovi opened the box and found a screen on the inside. The screen immediately flashed, catching Jovi off guard. An image of Jovi then appeared on the screen in a smaller box. The screen then began displaying details on the screen.

'Trainer name: Jovi'

'Trainer ID: 62995'

'Owner registry complete. PDA registration complete.'

After seeing this, Jovi closed the device, with her eyes lit up. Lily had been given a PDA. With this, she could now go on a pokémon journey safely. Until now, she wasn't allowed to go any further than Gateon port because she had no way of keeping in contact with Lily. This was now no longer an issue. Almost as soon as the registration had finished, the device began ringing. It was the sound of a basic phone ringing. The device was also flashing on the outside. Curious, Jovi re-opened the device. The main screen immediately changed to another screen. This screen was mostly blank, except for a table. The top row of the table had an entry, LILY, pokémon HQ lab. Jovi realised that it was an e-mail but she didn't know how to open the mail, as the PDA had no buttons on the inside.

"Man, where's the instruction manual?" Jovi asked in frustration. She began searching through the packaging that the PDA was in, trying to find any sign of an instruction manual. While she was doing that, Plipli and Mimi had a look at the device. They hadn't seen anything like it before. They were used to unusual gadgets but nothing like this. The twp pokémon began prodding the device on the edges. Mimi then eventually prodded the screen by accident. She had touched the entry on the table, causing the e-mail to open suddenly. As a result, the pokémon leapt back in shock, landing on Plipli's back. The two pokémon then fell onto the floor, nearly knocking the PDA onto the floor. Jovi did hear the two pokémon fall onto the floor. She immediately looked over and saw them on the floor. She was able to crack a smile.

"Are you two ok?" Jovi asked. The two pokémon squeaked but climbed to their feet. Jovi walked over to the PDA to check that it hadn't been damaged and saw that the screen had changed. The e-mail that she had received was now being displayed. She began reading the message aloud, so Plipli and Mimi could listen as well.

"Jovi,

If you're reading this, then I'm assuming that you've found this PDA or Pokémon Digital Assistant. It's an invaluable tool for any pokémon trainer. I have prevented you from leaving you to travel the region until now because I was worried that you would not be safe, but now that you have grown very strong with your plusle and minun, I now feel that you are ready to follow in your father's footsteps. On that subject, can you come to the main office; Krane needs to speak to you.

Lily"

"Did you two do this? How?" Jovi asked, looking down to Plipli and Mimi. The two pokémon looked back at her, not knowing what she meant by that. Jovi had another look at the PDA. Having a thought, Jovi touched the screen with her finger. The e-mail disappeared and the PDA returned to the main screen. Jovi then realised that the screen was a touch screen, and that was how the PDA worked. She looked back down at Plipli and Mimi.

"Well, we'd better see what Krane wants." With that, Jovi changed into some casual clothes and went off to the main office.

* * *

When Jovi arrived at the main office, she saw Lily at the main desk, looking at a file that had been compiled soon after the second shadow incident. It was a file that had the records of the different shadow attacks. Krane was nowhere in sight though. Jovi decided to ask Lily as to where he was. Lily noticed Jovi as soon as she reached the desk.

"Morning Jovi." Lily greeted.

"Morning mother." Jovi replied.

"I presume you found the PDA."

"I sure did, and thanks a lot." Plipli and Mimi then jumped onto the desk and both squeaked to greet Lily.

"And how are Plipli and Mimi, are you two ok?" Lily asked.

"Plusle!" Plipli squeaked.

"Minun!" Mimi added.

"I'll take that as a yes." Lily replied.

"Krane wanted to see me Lily, where is he?" Jovi asked.

"He just went downstairs. I think he went to get…" Before Lily could finish, Krane entered the room. He was holding a device in both of his hands. The device looked like a metal arm, but the hand end looked a little like a glove. There were a couple of wires on the outside. Jovi didn't seem to notice the device and she just greeted Krane.

"Morning Krane."

"Ah, morning Jovi. Morning Plipli and Mimi." Krane greeted. Both pokémon squealed to greet the professor.

"Krane, what did you want to see me for?"

"Ah yes, it is quite an urgent matter. Do you recognise this device?" Jovi had a look at the device that the professor was holding and instantly recognised it.

"Brother's Snag machine!"

"Yes it is."

"But why do you need it?"

"There have been alleged sightings of shadow pokémon."

"I thought big brother got rid of them all."

"It's only unconfirmed rumours, but we can't take any chances. You did use the snag machine simulation haven't you?"

"Yes. It's one of my favourite past times."

"I know it is. Plus you're the strongest trainer here."

"Well, I do want to follow my brother."

"Now you've got your chance. I'd like you to take these." Krane then gave Jovi 5 poké balls and helped Jovi put the Snag machine on her left arm. He also fitted the aura catcher to her head, so she could see the shadow pokémon. Jovi took them and had a look at them.

"I'll go. I might meet up with my brother."

"I figured you'd say that."

"I'm so proud of you Jovi." Lily added.

"The first sightings were in Gateon port."

"That's where Emili lives." Jovi exclaimed.

"I don't know what kind of shadow pokémon there are, but you'll need this for your PDA." Krane then gave Jovi a card that looked like a floppy disc. Jovi took the device and had a look at it. She then inserted the card into one of the slots on the side of the PDA and then opened the device. When the main screen was displayed, another option appeared on the main screen. The new option was 'Shadow Monitor'.

"That shadow monitor will automatically record data of all shadow pokémon you meet. It will be invaluable in your journey." Krane explained.

"Right, now I'd better be off. I'm a little worried about Emili." Jovi said.

"Just…be careful." Lily said.

"I will. Plipli, Mimi, come on." Jovi recalled the two pokémon into their poké balls and then went outside the lab. She then climbed on her little scooter, which was almost identical to the one used by her brother, except that it was grey rather than white. She climbed onto the scooter, gave one final wave to Lily and Krane, and then drove off towards Gateon port.

* * *

Gateon port was pretty much exactly like it was 3 years ago. There were a few other people walking around but nobody that seemed obviously rough. Jovi kept Plipli and Mimi in their poké balls, just in case there were a few ruffians around that wanted her pokémon. The first place that Jovi went to was the poké mart. She had about 5,000 worth of money and she needed to buy some potions and some heals. The poké mart had improved in the last three years. The herbalist had moved out and into the pokémon centre. Much to Jovi's surprise, she found Emili in the poké mart. She was at the back of the store buying some potions. Jovi came up behind her to grab a few potions as well, making sure that Emili noticed her.

"Hi Jovi, this is a surprise." Emili greeted.

"Hi Emili. Great to see you."

"What brings you here?" Jovi had a quick glance around to check if anyone else is around. She didn't want to alarm any other customers but she felt that she had to tell Emili what she was up to. Besides, Jovi could trust Emili very well. Jovi leant in close so nobody could listen to what she was about to say.

"Keep this quiet, but Krane has asked me to investigate reports of shadow pokémon." To Jovi's surprise, Emili wasn't horrified about the shadow pokémon.

"So that's what you were doing."

"Yeah."

"Well, I was one of the people who saw a shadow pokémon."

"Did you?"

"Yeah. I battled somebody the other day with a rather violent zigzagoon. Volbeat and Illumise were only just able to win."

"What did that guy look like?"

"I'll tell you, but first there's something that I want to do."

"What is it?"

"Jovi, I challenge you to a pokémon battle."

"Ok then. Let's just finish buying what we need to and then we can have our battle."

* * *

Jovi purchased 5 potions and 5 full heals from the poké mart. It was currently out of stock of the more useful healing items like super potions and full restores. Jovi and Emili found a clear area in the main square of the port, a perfect area for their battle. The two got into suitable positions opposite each other.

"How about a two on two battle?" Jovi suggested.

"Fine by me. That's what I'm used to." Emili replied.

"Same here." Both trainers held two poké balls in their hands.

"I chose volbeat and illumise!" Emili shouted, throwing the two poké balls into the air. The poké balls opened and a volbeat appeared from one and an illumise appeared from the other.

"Volbeat! Volbeat!" The volbeat cried.

"Illumise!" The illumise added.

"Then I chose Plipli and Mimi!" Jovi shouted, throwing the two poké balls in the air. Plipli and Mimi came out of their poké balls.

"Emili, you can make the first move." Jovi said.

"Thanks. Volbeat, tackle! Illumise, tackle!" Emili shouted. The volbeat and illumise came running at Plipli and Mimi as fast as they could.

"Plipli, Mimi, evade with quick attack!" Jovi shouted. Plipli and Mimi evaded the tackle attacks with incredible speed. Volbeat and illumise screeched to a halt, not noticing where Plipli and Mimi had gone.

"Mimi, helping hand! Plipli, thundershock the volbeat!" Jovi shouted. Plipli and Mimi joined hands. Mimi gave Plipli a power boost and Plipli released a powerful surge of electricity towards volbeat. The shock found it's mark but volbeat was able to stay standing. The shock, however, did leave the pokémon paralysed. The movements were suddenly much slower. The illumise went over to the volbeat and tried to help it move.

"Volbeat, are you ok?" Emili asked.

"It's been paralysed by the thundershock." Jovi said.

"Oh no. Volbeat, are you ok?" Volbeat was able to slowly able to turn its head around and look at Emili.

"Volllllll……beat." The pokémon was able to reply, although it's voice was very slow.

"Do you want to continue?" Jovi asked. Emili looked away from her volbeat and back at Jovi. She had made up her mind about what she wanted to do. She had seen that Plipli and Mimi's attacks were very powerful.

"Jovi, I give up. I don't want my pokémon to get hurt anymore."

"Ok then. You did well though." Emili recalled volbeat and illumise. Jovi allowed Plipli and Mimi to have a little cuddle with each other before she recalled them. This didn't surprise Emili; she knew that the two pokémon had feelings for each other.

"Thanks. Plipli and Mimi are incredibly powerful."

"We'd better get to the pokémon…" Before Jovi could finish her sentence, they were interrupted by the sound of crashing and banging.

"What's going on?" Emili asked.

"Don't know."

"It's coming from the Krabby club."

"Let's go."

* * *

The two ran towards the Krabby club as fast as they could. When they arrived, they saw that a fight was going on. It appeared that a single thug had gotten into an argument with some of the sailors. The thug was fairly buff, with brown hair and wearing jaggy jeans and a shirt. He was also using a single indistinguishable pokémon against a sailor's poliwag. The poliwag was taken out in a single hit, being thrown against the wall of the Krabby club. The thug had recalled his pokémon before Jovi and Emili arrived. When they were able to see the thug, Emili recognised him.

"Jovi, that's the guy who had that violent zigzagoon." Emili said.

"So, that would be a shadow pokémon. He can't keep that pokémon." Jovi said.

"What are you intending to do?"

"I'm going to take that pokémon from him. It's the only way."

"Steal the pokémon?"

"That's how my brother did it three years ago. There really is no other way."

"Ok, but I'm not comfortable about this." Jovi and Emili cautiously walked closer to the Krabby in, just when the thug had recalled the pokémon. He then turned around and saw both Jovi and Emili. He immediately recognised Emili and gave a very menacing sneer.

"I remember you. You defeated my prize pokémon the other day!" The thug shouted. Emili flinched at the thug's shouting. She did remember that battle but she was in no suitable condition to fight.

"Look, I don't want to battle you again." Emili said.

"Nobody refuses a challenge from me, the great Naps!"

"Naps, why does that name sound familiar?" Jovi thought to herself.

"I don't have time to fight you. I just wanted to see what was going on." Emili said.

"But you still challenge me? I'll pound you into oblivion!"

"If you want to do that, you'll have to go through me." Jovi said.

"And you are?" Naps asked. Jovi then remembered the name Naps. It was the same name of the cipher peon that had kidnapped Krane three years ago. She then had a sudden feeling that this was the same Naps. She immediately dismissed the idea, not realising that she was correct.

"Naps, I challenge you to a pokémon battle!" Jovi said.

"Heh, you think you can beat me? I'll pound you into oblivion!" Naps threw two poké balls into the air. They opened up and revealed a rhyhorn and a poochyena.

"I won't lose this. Plipli, Mimi, go!" Jovi released the two pokémon from their poké balls. The two pokémon landed and assumed a battle position.

"You little plusle and minun stand no chance against my rhyhorn!" Naps scoffed.

"Jovi, rhyhorn's a ground type. Plipli and Mimi are doomed." Emili said.

"I know what I'm doing. These two have a rather unusual attack under their belt, a move they can't usually learn." Jovi whispered into Emili's ear.

"I hope so."

"You can make the first move, since you're going to lose immediately." Naps said.

"Very well, Mimi, quick attack the poochyena!" Jovi shouted. Mimi charged right at the poochyena before Naps could react. The attack scored a critical hit and knocked out the poochyena instantly, knocking it into the wall. Naps recalled his poochyena and sneered.

"A lucky punch, but now it ends. Rhyhorn, take down the minun!" Naps shouted. The rhyhorn began charging as fast as it could towards Mimi. Plipli immediately ran into the way, putting herself in the way of the rhyhorn.

"Plipli, water pulse!" Plipli opened its mouth and released the water pulse directly at the rhyhorn. The attack completely overpowered the rhyhorn and knocked it out. Everyone who was watching was amazed at the water pulse attack. Naps just stared in disbelief.

"How can a plusle use water pulse?" A sailor who was watching in the background asked. The sailor next to him just shrugged. Naps eventually growled menacingly.

"I still have one pokémon left. It will crush you completely. Go zigzagoon!" Naps shouted, recalling the rhyhorn and throwing another poké ball into the air. Just like he said, a zigzagoon popped out. As soon as 8it landed, it growled very evilly. Almost as soon as it came out, the aura reader attached to Jovi's head activated. A transparent screen came out and covered her left eye. She looked at the zigzagoon through the aura catcher. She then saw a purple aura of darkness surrounding the pokémon. It was just like she had suspected.

"Just like I thought, a shadow pokémon!" Jovi said aloud, deliberately so everyone around could hear.


	3. The first snag

**The first snag**

As soon as Jovi revealed to all observers that the zigzagoon was a shadow pokémon, there was an immediate wave of shock throughout the spectators. They had noticed that the zigzagoon was unusually vicious and powerful but this was the last thing that they had expected. Everyone watching began chatting amongst themselves.

"Did she say a shadow pokémon?" One of the watching sailors asked.

"I think she did. That zigzagoon." Another replied.

"Did the hero miss a shadow or is this a new one?"

"I don't know. I'd guess that it's new."

"Which means that Cipher's back."

"If she's from the lab, we'll be ok."

"If she can match the previous hero."

"Naps, where did you get that pokémon?" Jovi asked.

"What does it matter to you?" Naps snapped.

"That pokémon is dangerous. You shouldn't have it!"

"Well I do. You can't do anything about it." Jovi then gave a deep sigh. She knew that she had to take that pokémon away from him, but she didn't want to do it. She remembered her days in the battle simulator. She knew that if she were to capture any pokémon, she would have to weaken it first. She already figured that weakening the zigzagoon was going to be difficult, as it was a shadow pokémon, and therefore very aggressive. She would have to do her very best to keep Plipli and Mimi from harm, though that would be far from easy. There was absolutely no telling what that zigzagoon was capable off.

"Plipli, water pulse!" Jovi instructed. Plipli fired a water pulse at the zigzagoon. The zigzagoon easily leapt out of the way of the attack.

"Zigzagoon, destroy them!" Naps shouted. The zigzagoon charged, full speed, at Plipli. Jovi could see the shadow aura around the pokémon increase dramatically during the attack.

"Plipli, look out! A shadow blitz attack!" Jovi shouted. Plipli tried to avoid but she was hit by the charging zigzagoon and was sent flying back into Mimi. Both pokémon were ok but a little dazed from the blow. They climbed back to their feet, Plipli holding onto Mimi for support. Jovi suddenly became very concerned about her two pokémon.

"Are you two ok?" Both pokémon looked at Jovi and squealed to let her know that they were both ok. Jovi then noticed the zigzagoon preparing to use shadow blitz again, this time aiming at Mimi.

"Guys, it's coming again. Use quick attack to evade!" Jovi shouted. The two pokémon were able to dodge the attack without being hit and at the same time out a fair amount of distance between them and the shadow zigzagoon.

"Mimi, helping hand! Plipli, thundershock!" The two pokémon joined hands and Mimi gave Plipli a power charge. Before the zigzagoon could do anything it, Plipli unleashed the thundershock attack. The zigzagoon stood no chance of evading the attack and took it full on the chin. It ended up panting heavily and suffering from paralysis. The spectators were amazed as to how much power was in that attack.

"Those two pokémon are incredible." Somebody said.

"No kidding." Another replied.

"How strong would it have been without the aid of helping hand though?"

"Who knows."

"What do you think she'll do now?"

"I dunno. She may do what the hero did three years ago."

"Snag the pokémon?"

"Probably. She's using the same machine the hero used three years ago." The zigzagoon couldn't move due to paralysis. Naps was now getting very angry that he was loosing the battle, even with the zigzagoon. It was clearly exhausted from suffering that one attack. Plipli was getting a little worn out but Mimi was still ok. Jovi was busy fitting one of the poké balls into the hand end of the snag machine. She then began tapping some buttons on the shoulder end of the device, locking the target as the shadow zigzagoon. She then looked at Naps and the zigzagoon.

"I'm sorry about this, but you cannot keep such a dangerous pokémon. There really is no other way." Jovi said, a hint of sadness in her voice. She really did not want to do this but there was very little other option. The snag machine bleep to let her know that the charge up was complete. She then threw the ball at the zigzagoon. The ball found it's mark and the zigzagoon was absorbed into the ball. The light on the front of the ball turned red and it began shaking as the zigzagoon tried to escape. Everyone watching watched the ball rock from side to side continuously. Naps was absolutely horrified at what was happening. Not only was he loosing the battle, it seemed that his shadow pokémon, his strongest pokémon, was about to be taken away from him. Emili was praying that the snag would be successful. She was scared as to what would happen if it escaped from the ball. Plipli was getting worn out and couldn't battle for much longer, even though Mimi still had a lot of energy left. The two pokémon were cautiously looking at the ball. They did not know what to think. All of a sudden, the ball stopped shaking and a tone came from the ball. The shadow zigzagoon had been successfully captured. Jovi walked over to the poké ball and picked it up with her free hand.

"I'm sorry about this, but there really is no other way." Jovi said. Naps began to panic. He had been completely defeated. The first thing he did was try to run away. He suddenly ran away, running past the poké mart. As he was, a small blue pokémon with tan markings came out of the mart. It was the herbalists' munchlax. Naps didn't see the munchlax and tripped over it. Naps fell flat on his face while the munchlax began rubbing its. It then growled angrily and then did a body slam right onto Naps' back, pinning him to the floor and hurting his back. In munchlax's eyes, it was getting back at Naps for kicking him.

* * *

While Naps was pinned to the floor, Jovi and Emili came running over to where he was. Jovi wanted to ask him where he had obtained the zigzagoon and then heal her pokémon. Plipli and Mimi were running close behind her. Everyone who had watched the battle was also following them. One was contacting the authorities while he was running. When they reached Naps and the munchlax, the herbalist came out of the poké mart. When she first saw the scene, she jumped to the wrong conclusion, thinking that the munchlax was misbehaving.

"Oh, you glutton! What was the reason for this unnecessary attack? You need to apologize right now!" The herbalist scolded.

"Don't worry Miss. Your munchlax did a good thing." Jovi said.

"What do you mean?"

"That man was using a shadow pokémon."

"He had a shadow pokémon?"

"Yes. We need to know how he obtained it."

"I see."

"Your munchlax was in the right place at the right time." Emili said. Jovi then looked down at Naps, who was still dazed after being body slammed by munchlax. Munchlax stepped off Naps' back but before he could get up, Plipli and Mimi jumped on his back, pinning him down again.

"How did you get that shadow zigzagoon?" Jovi asked.

"I won't say." Naps replied.

"Wrong answer. You have to tell me."

"No!"

"Mimi…" Mimi didn't need Jovi to finish to know what to do. The little pokémon gave Naps a sharp but quick electric shock.

"The shock strength will increase and in length every time until you tell us where you got that zigzagoon." Jovi explained.

"I won't say!" Naps scolded. Mimi gave Naps another electric shock. This went on for a few minutes before Naps finally gave in. He was paralyzed from suffering all of the thundershock attacks. By now the authorities had arrived but they were waiting to see what he had to say.

"I have to admit that I didn't get that pokémon fairly." Naps said.

"What do you mean?" Jovi asked.

"3 years ago, I was a part of cipher. I was kicked out soon after I lost my shadow teddiursa. I then became a thug after that. I stole that pokémon a few days ago from some scientist guy in the ruins of the cipher key lair that your brother destroyed 3 years ago. I wanted to use it to make myself more scary as a thug."

"Do you know of any other shadow pokémon?"

"I did hear a rumor of another XD class shadow."

"WHAT!" Everyone around exclaimed.

"If you want to find out for sure, go there yourself."

* * *

The authorities took Naps away after he said this and placed him in the back of a police hover van. One member of the police stayed behind to have a word with Jovi. He needed to speak to Jovi about the incident.

"You're from the pokémon HQ lab aren't you?" The officer asked.

"Yes sir." Jovi replied.

"My name is Officer Thorn of the national police."

"A pleasure to meet you. My name is Jovi."

"On behalf of everyone that could have been hurt, I must thank you for taking that shadow pokémon away from such a thug."

"It's no problem, but I do feel a little guilty about it."

"Did Krane predict that shadow pokémon would come back?"

"He must have done. The lab received an alleged report about the shadow zigzagoon and they asked me to have a look. They gave me this snag machine just in case the reports were true."

"It seems obvious that that zigzagoon won't be the only shadow. You have permission to use that snag machine to take back any other shadows. We'll contact ONBS and get a message sent out alerting everyone about it. If you give me your PDA number, I'll get in contact if I hear anything."

"Ok then." Jovi gave Officer Thorn her PDA number so he could contact her if anything happened. Thorn recorded the number on a handheld organizer.

"We'll be in touch. Thank you for your help." Thorn then climbed into the police hover van, which then left the scene. The spectators began to walk away from the scene and return to what they were doing before hand. They were still shocked by what had happened. The herbalist and the munchlax went back into the poké mart, leaving Jovi and Emili still in the area. Jovi looked down at Plipli and Mimi, who were looking up at Jovi.

"I'm very proud of both of you. You have both made me very proud. You deserve a well earned rest." Jovi said. Both pokémon squeaked in response. Jovi then recalled the two pokémon into their two poké balls.

"Did you want to come back to my house for a drink Jovi?" Emili asked.

"Sure. Then I'd better head back to the lab and talk to Krane, but I could use a drink." Jovi and Emili then walked away from the poké mart to head towards Emili's house. Jovi was beginning to realize that she was going to embark on quite a journey very soon. She would have to ask people at the lab where the ruined cipher key lair was located so she could go there and investigate. She had no idea of what would be waiting for her at the ruined lab, but it filled her with dread. Especially the rumors of a new XD class shadow. The shadow lugia must have been a terrifying experience for her brother until he snagged it. Who knew what the next XD shadow was. It could literally by anything. She began to fear that it was something incredibly powerful and dangerous. She also knew that, at one point, she would have to face it and take it away, if it did exist. All she could do was gather information, rescue any shadow pokémon that she came across and discover the truth in this rumor.


	4. The next step

**The next step**

After a quick stop at the pokémon centre to heal their pokémon, Jovi and Emili returned to Emili's house. Acri hadn't seen the fight with the shadow zigzagoon as she was working on another novel, but she had heard all the commotion outside. She had intended to ask Emili what had happened when she came back in. Jovi and Emili weren't bothered at all by any other trainers while they were walking back; everyone else was too shocked by what had happened. When Jovi and Emili arrived at Emili's house, Acri was already outside waiting outside. When she saw Jovi, she just smiled and waved to greet her,

"Ah, hello Jovi. This is a surprise visit." Acri greeted.

"Hi Acri, nice to see you." Jovi greeted.

"Hi mother." Emili said.

"Would you like a drink Jovi?" Acri asked.

"I'd love one." Jovi replied. Emili and Jovi walked into the house and sat down at the dining room table. The dining room was pretty much in front of the front door. There was a gas cooker and a fridge near the dining table and a workbench on the opposite side. The workbench had the standard equipment found in a kitchen: sink, cupboards, draws etc. There was a doorway to the right that led to the lounge area. Acri was pouring a couple of glasses of Orange juice for Emili and Jovi while the two were sitting at the table. Jovi took the poké ball that contained the shadow zigzagoon that she had just snagged and placed it on the table. She still felt a little guilty about taking the pokémon but knew that she had to take it, as there was no other way. She also knew that she would have to get over these guilt attacks, otherwise she would end up not snagging any more shadow pokémon that may have been created. Acri finished preparing the glasses of Orange juice and gave the glasses to Jovi and Emili. While she was doing this, she noticed the poké ball on the table.

"Is that a new pokémon?" Acri asked.

"Yeah." Jovi replied.

"What is it?"

"It's a zigzagoon." Emili replied.

"Shadow." Jovi added.

"A shadow pokémon!" Acri exclaimed.

"Yeah. I had to take it back from a thug near the Krabby club."

"Are you sure it was a shadow?" Jovi pointed to the aura catcher attached to her head.

"Shadow pokémon exclude a dark aura that is not normally visible. This device allows me to see those auras."

"Is that the Snag machine your brother used 3 years ago?"

"Yeah. Krane predicted that shadow pokémon would come back. That's probably why this wasn't dismantled."

"What are you going to do now?" Emili asked.

"The zigzagoon will needs to be purified. It's far too violent right now." Jovi replied.

"Violent?" Acri asked. To prove her point, Jovi opened the poké ball and allowed the zigzagoon to come out. As soon as it was out, it looked around its surroundings while growling. Jovi let Plipli and Mimi out as well as a precaution.

"Plipli, Mimi, if zigzagoon goes wild, I'll need you two to thundershock it, ok?" Jovi asked. Plipli and Mimi squeaked affectionately and turned to look at the zigzagoon, which was still growling at Acri.

"It certainly sounds aggressive." Acri muttered. As soon as she spoke, the zigzagoon barked and tried to leap at her, only to be shocked by Mimi. It turned around and growled menacingly at Mimi. Plipli glared at the zigzagoon and prepared to unleash a thundershock at it.

"Zigzagoon, stop that!" Jovi shouted. The zigzagoon looked at Jovi and growled again, but it didn't try and lunge at her. At that point, a thought occurred to Acri. She ran out of the room and ran upstairs.

"Where's Acri going?" Jovi asked. Emili just shrugged while taking a sip of her Orange Juice. Jovi took a sip from her glass. The shadow zigzagoon eventually calmed down but didn't show any signs of affection at all. Acri suddenly came back into the room with a small sponge like case with three holes on one side. There was a button under each of the holes. She gave the case to Jovi, who didn't know what the case was.

"What is this?" Jovi asked.

"That's a cologne case. Rubbing pokémon with the various cents is supposed to make them happier. I heard it also helps purify shadow pokémon." Acri replied.

"How did you get that mum?" Emili asked.

"I picked it up when I went to Agate village about a month ago."

"How does it work"? Jovi asked.

"Each of the holes contains a scent. You push a button underneath one of the holes and then squeeze the case to release the scent. There's currently one of each scent in the case. Try it on the zigzagoon." Jovi pushed the left-hand side button and squeezed the case. Green foam oozed out of the hole. Jovi then rubbed this foam over the zigzagoon, slightly worried about how it would react to the treatment. To her surprise, the zigzagoon laid down on its front and stopped growling immediately. It became relaxed completely as Jovi rubbed it with the scent.

"Wow, it's enjoying this." Jovi said.

"You can buy scents for that case at the poké mart in Agate village if you run out. Rubbing with scents should help you purify any shadows that you catch." Acri added.

"Thanks Acri." Jovi recalled the zigzagoon into its poké ball. Plipli and Mimi were sniffing the air, which still smelt of the scent that Jovi had used.

"Don't worry you two, I'll massage you two later." Jovi said, recalling them into their poké balls. She then finished her Orange Juice and stood up from her chair.

"I'd better head back to the lab and report back to Krane." Jovi said.

"I understand. If there are any more shadows, you'll need to take them back." Acri replied.

"Where will you be going after that?" Emili asked.

"Probably to the ruins of the Cipher key lair to see what's there." Jovi replied.

"Well, good luck, and come to visit some time."

"Sure will."

* * *

Jovi left Emili and Acri's house and went to the poké mart to browse around a little before she went off. She didn't need anything but she was curious as to what the shop actually stocked. There were a variety of different potions and other healing items. She also found packets of poké snacks. These were very popular, as people were still going out and catching pokémon at the poké spots. It had recently been discovered that five pokémon appeared at each spot. At the rock spot, meditte and makuhita had been seen. The Cave spot was now being visited by misdreavus and duskull. Sudowodo and farfetch'd had been seen at the Oasis spot. Jovi wanted to buy some poké snacks but she didn't have the money to do so. Naps hadn't given her any prize money for her victory. She turned around to leave when she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. A sudden chill went down her back. She had no idea of who was behind her. She cautiously looked around, prepared to pull out her pokémon to defend herself, and sighed with relief when she saw the herbalist behind her. Her munchlax was standing next to her.

"Miss, please don't do that to me." Jovi said.

"Sorry little lady." The herbalist replied.

"Anyway, did you want me for something?"

"You're the trainer that took that shadow pokémon aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Good, I need to ask you a favour."

"What is this favour?"

"I've finally come to realise that I'm too old to cope with my herb shop and looking after this little glutton."

"Your munchlax?"

"Him, yeah. He's just too much trouble for me."

"What can I do to help?"

"I'd like you to take it off my hands. I'm sure that it would be much happier with you and going around the region rather than being stuck with me. It would also make my life much easier."

"How does he cause you trouble?"

"Whenever I go out to get some herbs, he wonders away and I often find him scoffing other people's poké snacks."

"I see, can't keep an eye on him eh?"

"No I can't. That's why I need you to take him off my hands."

"Munchlax!" The munchlax exclaimed.

"I don't know much about munchlax, but I'll try and look after it." Jovi said.

"Thank you. I don't know much either, but I've heard that it evolves into snorlax" The herbalist replied.

"Thanks for the information. I'll take good care of munchlax here."

"You are really helping me out here, so I'll give you a gift." The Herbalist gave Jovi munchlax's poké ball and a bag full of herbal pokémon medicines, including heal powders, energy roots and revival herbs. Jovi looked through the bag at all the herbal remedies.

"These are for pokémon aren't they?"

"Yes. They are very effective medicines."

"Thank you."

"I'll see you whenever then. Take care of munchlax for me."

"I will. Ready munchlax?" The munchlax looked up at Jovi and squeaked. Jovi smiled and called it into the poké ball. The herbalist then walked away while Jovi left the poké mart to return to the lab.

* * *

After receiving the munchlax from the herbalist, Jovi returned to the pokémon HQ lab. A lot of things had happened at Gateon port and she had to report back to Krane on what had happened. When she arrived at the lab, the first place she went to was the main office. Just as she had hoped, Krane was there with Lily. They both noticed Jovi enter the room and turned to greet her.

"Welcome back Jovi." Lily greeted.

"Hi mother." Jovi replied.

"What were the results of your investigation?" Krane asked.

"Positive. There are some new shadow pokémon around. My friend Emili told me about one of them."

"Did you see it?"

"Yes. It was a shadow zigzagoon. I was able to catch it with the snag machine and he was taken away by the authorities."

"That's good, but if there's one shadow pokémon, there's bound to be others."

"The owner was a thug that we saw in the port. He stole the pokémon from a scientist he met at the ruins of the Cipher key lair."

"That would indicate that Cipher are coming back."

"That's not all I found out. He also said that he had heard rumours about another XD class shadow." Both Lily and Krane gasped at the thought of another XD shadow. Jovi's brother had been able to capture the XD lugia last time, but there was no telling what this new XD was, but it did give Krane a thought.

"That may be linked to the attack last night."

"What attack?"

"It was on the news while you were gone. A train passing through the area was attacked by something last night. The train driver said something about a strange creature with four thin arms stopping the train. It kept on changing form as well."

"That's not like any pokémon I know. It could be a ditto though."

"It might be. The important thing is that the train was carrying a large amount of pokémon."

"Just like what happened to the S.S. Libra." Lily added.

"That happened to the S.S. Libra?" Jovi asked.

"Yes. Your brother found it in the middle of the desert."

"Then where would that train be?"

"Who knows, but all those shadows on that train could be changed into shadow pokémon unless we act fast."

"Jovi, we want you to go to the ruined Cipher key lair and find out if it's been reactivated. If it has, you'll need to shut it down again." Krane said.

"While you're doing that, we'll contact Eagun at Agate village to tell him about the shadow zigzagoon." Lily added.

"Right." Jovi replied.

"We'll also get to work in reactivating the purify chamber while you're gone. It should be up and running when you get back."

"Ok. But where is the Cipher key lair?" Lily unfolded a map of the orre region and laid it out on the desk.

"It's about here. It's quite a distance from here." Lily pointed to a point on the far east of the map as she said this.

"Ok. I'll head there and have a look around."

"Just… be careful."

"I will Lily."


	5. The element brothers

**The element brothers**

After a very long trip across the region, Jovi eventually arrived at the ruins of the Cipher key lair. All of her pokémon were in their poké balls. A lot of the outer platforms around the main circular platform that led to the building had deteriorated beyond repair. The liquid around the base had lost its colour and was now completely clear, rather than the purplish colour that it was three years ago. The main building had also deteriorated, but it was still recognisable. There was absolutely nobody around the immediate area so Jovi went closer to the building. She couldn't even see any security cameras on the building; it looked completely abandoned. But if Naps was to be trusted, this building was up and running again. From first impressions, it looked as though Naps had been lying. The only way was to enter the building and see what was inside. Jovi went up to the door and tried to open the door but it was locked tightly with a keypad lock. There was no hope of forcing it open and Jovi's pokémon weren't strong enough to break it down. This also suggested that Naps hadn't been telling the truth. Jovi was having mixed feelings. She was partly upset about not being able to explore the lair and partly happy that she wouldn't have to fight a large amount of shadow pokémon. She turned around and began to leave. When she reached the centre of the circular platform that led to her scooter, she heard a voice call her.

"What are you doing here?" The voice asked. Jovi suddenly turned around but she couldn't see anyone immediately. That was until she saw three people in strange outfits jump up from the water below. The outfits looked very similar to the outfits that were worn by Cipher Peon's three years ago. One of them was green, another was red and the last one was blue. Jovi was shocked that she hadn't seen these people before but she put on a brave face.

"Who are you guys?" Jovi asked. The red and blue figures stood in a star stand position while the green figure jumped on their shoulders, creating a human pyramid.

"We are…" The green figure began.

"…Called the…" The red figure continued.

"…Element brothers!" The blue figure finished. Jovi stared at the three figures blankly while they continued their little introduction. The three spoke in the same order that they had before.

"Elgreen"

"Elred"

"Elblue" Jovi was nearly in hysterics; the whole display was completely ridiculous. It reminded her of the story her brother had told her before he left about a group of peon's he had met who called themselves the Hexagon brothers. The element brothers then spoke again in the same order that they had before.

"Did you come…"

"…Knowing that this…"

"…Is Cipher's turf?" Jovi then realised that the base was indeed still active. These three peons' were all the proof that she needed. But their display was so ridiculous that she could no longer contain her laughter anymore. She started giggling hysterically, having to cover her mouth with her hand. This gesture really upset the element brothers. They leapt down from their pose and drew poké balls from their suits.

"If that is…"

"…How you act…"

"…You must die!"

* * *

Elgreen began by throwing two poké balls into the air. Jovi did notice this and was able to stop laughing in time to see what had come out. She saw a paras and a bulbasaur. Jovi then pulled out two of her own poké balls and threw them into the air to combat against the two pokémon.

"Zigzagoon, munchlax, go!" Jovi shouted. Munchlax and zigzagoon appeared out of their poké balls immediately. The zigzagoon began growling viciously as soon as it landed. Munchlax just looked at the paras and the bulbasaur and rubbed its belly. Jovi was about to issue the first command when the aura catcher activated, telling her that one of them was a shadow.

"Shadow." Jovi muttered under her breath. She looked at the two pokémon that she was facing and immediately saw which of the pokémon was the shadow, the bulbasaur. Jovi had suspected that the Cipher peon's would use shadow pokémon and had mentally prepared herself for battles like this. She was actually concerned as to how munchlax would perform. She knew that it knew body slam but wasn't sure as to what else it knew. She figured that it would know similar moves to snorlax. She had a good idea of what snorlax can do so she figured that munchlax would know the same moves. She decided in her head to get rid of the paras before going to snag the bulbasaur.

"Zigzagoon, shadow blitz the paras!" Jovi instructed. The shadowy aura around zigzagoon built up and it charged straight at the paras. It had no time to avoid the attack and was blown off the circular platform and onto one of the deteriorating surrounding platforms. It had no chance of surviving the attack, as it had become a critical hit. Elgreen looked at the paras and recalled it into its poké ball.

"Hmm, you're good. Bulbasaur, shadow vine!" Elgreen shouted. The bulbasaur extended a vine from the bulb on its back. Jovi saw that the vine was surrounded with the shadowy aura through the aura catcher. The bulbasaur then lashed the vine at tremendous force, hitting zigzagoon on the side and scoring a critical hit. The zigzagoon was knocked sideways for a few feet but recovered and growled aggressively at the bulbasaur, looking as though it had received no damage whatsoever. Jovi didn't have much time to think about this as she had a shadow to snag.

"Munchlax, use yawn!" Jovi instructed. The munchlax looked at the bulbasaur and yawned loudly. Bulbasaur suddenly yawned as well, but nothing appeared to happen.

"I'll get you now! Destroy them bulbasaur!" The bulbasaur extended its vines and began running at the munchlax as fast as it could.

"Zigzagoon, protect munchlax!" Zigzagoon ran at the bulbasaur and the two pokémon collided. They both came to a sudden standstill, with munchlax just watching. Zigzagoon had been wounded and was breathing slightly heavily. Bulbasaur was breathing normally, showing no signs of exhaustion. Jovi began to worry about the safety of her pokémon. This bulbasaur was tough, but Jovi had put a plan into play earlier. All she had to do was wait for her moment.

"Munchlax, pound!" The munchlax leapt at the bulbasaur and smacked it with his fist. The bulbasaur took the hit and growled viciously at both munchlax and zigzagoon.

"Bulbasaur, shadow vine!" The bulbasaur extended a shadowy vine and prepared to attack Jovi's pokémon but suddenly the vine disappeared. Bulbasaur then suddenly fell asleep on the spot, from the effects of the yawn attack that munchlax had used earlier. This was the opening that Jovi was waiting for. Without hesitation, she drew a poké ball and placed it in the snag machine. The snag machine then activated and converted the poké ball.

"I can't let you keep that shadow." Jovi said as she threw the ball at the sleeping bulbasaur. Elgreen suddenly gasped as soon as the ball connected and sucked the bulbasaur inside. While the ball was shaking, Jovi quickly took the opportunity to use a potion on her zigzagoon. It did growl a little but it allowed Jovi to heal it. By the time she had finished healing the zigzagoon, the poké ball had stopped rocking. Jovi went over to the poké ball and picked it up.

"Bulbasaur is mine now, sorry."

* * *

Elgreen was horrified about not only loosing the battle, but also loosing his bulbasaur. As he was a member of cipher, he would have to tell his superiors, but he and his brothers' weren't about to let Jovi get away easily. Since she had the snag machine, she was a danger to cipher.

"Elred, you're up." Elgreen instructed. Elred threw his two poké balls into the air. They opened up to reveal a vulpix and a charmander. Jovi recalled zigzagoon and munchlax and had just grabbed the poké balls that contained Plipli and Mimi when the aura catcher activated, telling Jovi that one of them was a shadow pokémon. She looked at the two pokémon and noticed which of them had the shadow aura. It was the charmander.

"A shadow charmander. This shouldn't be too hard." Jovi muttered, throwing the poké balls that contained Plipli and Mimi. The two pokémon landed and squeaked happily. They then looked at their two opponents. The charmander was growling viciously and waving it's flaming tail around. Each swish of the tail released embers into the air; it was ready to fight.

"You're not going to take charmander away from me. Charmander, shadow char!" Elred shouted. The charmander swung it's tail sideways and released a small amount of fire, which the aura catcher showed as having a shadowy aura.

"Plipli, Mimi, get out of the way!" Jovi instructed. The two pokémon were able to evade the attack successfully by jumping into the air, using each other to boost their jump height.

"Plipli, use water pulse on the vulpix! Mimi, hit the charmander with thundershock!" Jovi instructed. Elred was shocked and horrified when Plipli released her water pulse attack and catching the vulpix right on the chin. It didn't have time to evade but was able to just survive the attack. It stood on its feet and glanced at Plipli. The charmander had taken Mimi's electrical attack heavily but was able to stay on its feet as well. It growled menacingly at Mimi, who flinched from the growl.

"Vulpix, use quick attack!" Elred instructed.

"Mimi, quick attack back!" Jovi instructed. The twp pokémon ran at each other at full speed and collided head on. The vulpix came off worse from the attack and it began to struggle to try and keep on its feet. Mimi was easily able to stay on his feet. The vulpix then suddenly collapsed and ceased to move, it had no energy left to continue. Elred was forced to recall it into its poké ball. This left the charmander to fight by itself.

"Charmander, shadow char!" The charmander released the shadow char attack again, catching Plipli by surprise. The attack was actually surprisingly strong, enough to knock Plipli to the floor. Mimi immediately ran over and helped his friend back onto her feet. Jovi suddenly noticed that Plipli had suffered a burn from the attack. Mimi suddenly lost it. He poured all of his strength into a thundershock attack at full power at the charmander. Not only did the attack give a heavy hit, the charmander was left paralysed. Under normal circumstances, Jovi would give Mimi a ticking off about it acting before being given instructions but she let it slide this time, since they were fighting a shadow pokémon. Without hesitation, Jovi began loading the snag machine and activated it. At the same time, she took out a full heal so she could heal Plipli's burn.

"Why do you use shadow pokémon anyway? They are far too dangerous." Jovi asked as she threw the converted poké ball at the helpless charmander. She quickly healed Plipli's burn while the poké ball was shaking. As soon as she was healed, Plipli gave Jovi an affectionate lick before giving a similar lick to Mimi. Jovi looked up and saw that the charmander had been captured. She went over and picked up the poké ball before returning to her pokémon.

"Mimi, try and await my instructions before leaping to defend Plipli or anyone." Jovi said. Mimi just squeaked in response.

* * *

Jovi had now defeated two of the element brothers and captured their shadow pokémon. She now had a full belt of six pokémon so the next one she would capture would be sent to her storage box. The last of the element brothers remaining was Elblue. He didn't need to be told that it was his turn and immediately threw two poké balls into the air. Judging by what had been happening, Jovi guessed that he would be using water type pokémon and have a shadow squirtle. As she thought, the two poké balls contained a squirtle and a shellder. The aura catcher also activated when the two appeared. Jovi looked at the squirtle first and saw that it was emanating a shadowy aura, just like she had guessed.

"Just as I thought." Jovi muttered.

"Alright you, I won't let you get away from me!" Elblue shouted.

"Bring it on."

"Squirtle, shadow bubble!" The squirtle opened its mouth and released a spray of bubbles. These bubble hit both Plipli and Mimi, though they looked as though they only took very minor damage from the attack. Both pokémon looked at their attacker.

"Mimi, helping hand! Plipli, thundershock the shellder!" The two pokémon did their usual combination, but their speed had obviously been cut by the attack, as the reaction time lengthened. The attack was still far too strong for the shellder to survive though. Elblue recalled the fainted pokémon into its poké ball and looked evilly at Jovi.

"I admit that you are skilled, but you will not beat me. Squirtle, full power shadow bubble!" The squirtle opened its mouth again and fired the stream of bubbles at Plipli and Mimi.

"Plipli, Mimi, evade and counter with quick attack!" The two pokémon used their incredible speed to avoid the bubbles and then both smash into the squirtle, knocking it to the floor. It had been completely stunned by the double attack and was trying desperately to stand up straight.

"Ok, last one for now." Jovi muttered as she loaded the snag machine. As soon as it was ready, she threw the converted poké ball at the squirtle and watch as it was sucked inside. Elblue gasped in horror and everyone around just watched the poké ball as it rocked from side to side. After a few seconds, the ball locked and suddenly disappeared from the area. Jovi gave a sigh of relief as soon as the ball disappeared.

"That should be in my storage system now." Jovi muttered. The element brothers were absolutely flabergastered. Jovi had beaten all three of them and taken their shadow pokémon.

"We lost…" Elgreen began.

"…We've got…" Elred continued.

"…To run!" Elblue finish. The three then ran straight past Jovi and away from the area. Once they were gone, Jovi let munchlax and zigzagoon out of their poké balls.

"I am very proud of all of you. Let's go home and have a well earned rest." Jovi said. Plipli and Mimi squeaked with joy while zigzagoon remained quiet. Jovi petted all of the pokémon before recalling them into their poké balls. Pretty much as soon as she had done that, her PDA rang. Curious, she pulled it out and had a look at who was contacting her. The email was from Lily.

"Jovi, I hope everything has gone well so far. As soon as you're done at the cipher key lair, could you come back to the lab? There's something I need to speak to you about." The e-mail read. Jovi groaned a little once she had finished reading the mail.

"What does she want with me?" She asked herself. She began to walk back to her scooter but something on the floor caught her eye. It was a small card with the cipher logo and a black stripe, obviously dropped by one of the element brothers. The card also read 'Access to shadow factory' underneath the logo.

"A key card for a shadow factory? Krane had better see this." Jovi picked up the card and placed it in her bag before climbing back aboard her scooter and take the long journey back to the lab. Once she had finished speaking to Lily, she would have a good rest, as she was very tired after what had happened today. She would also have to write up the day's events in her diary as well. One thing was certain though; it was going to be a very busy time for her. She was so busy thinking about this that she didn't notice a figure on the very top of the ruined cipher key lair. When Jovi left the area, the figure, which looked a littlelike a large cat, flew away into the sky, leaving a sparkling trail behind it.


	6. Methods of purification

**Methods of purification**

After a very long journey across the region, including a visit to the Gateon port pokémon centre, Jovi finally arrived back at the pokémon HQ lab. She really wanted to go straight to sleep but she knew that Lily needed to speak to her. In many ways, she needed to speak to her as well, as she had to tell her what had happened at the ruined Cipher Key lair, especially about the new shadow pokémon that she had captured. She also needed advice. The only two methods of purifying shadow pokémon that she knew were the cologne case and the purify chamber. She needed to know of what other methods that there were to purify shadow pokémon, as she had very little idea. When she eventually arrived back at the lab, the sun had set and it was pretty dark. The outside light was on so Jovi could find her way to the doors. The first place she went to when she was inside the lab was the office. That's where she thought Lily would be, but the room was empty. There was nobody in the office at all, but there was a note on the desk. Curious, Jovi picked up the note and read it to herself. It was addressed to her from Lily.

"Jovi, I figured that this would be the first place that you would come to try and find us. Please come to the room with the Purify chamber." Jovi was a little surprised but at the same time expected them to be there. She took the letter with her and went down to the room with the purify chamber. Lily was there as well as Krane and the rest of the other scientists in the lab. As soon as she entered the room, everyone turned to look at her, which slightly freaked her out.

"Welcome back Jovi." Lily greeted. Everyone else gave a friendly wave towards her.

"Hi Lily." Jovi replied.

"What was the result of your investigation of the lair?" Krane asked.

"I'm fairly sure that it is back up and running but I couldn't get in."

"How come?"

"There was a key pad code lock. There was no way of getting inside."

"But what makes you say that it's active?"

"I met three cipher peon's outside. I was able to snag their shadow pokémon as well."

"So how many shadows do you have so far?"

"Four. A zigzagoon, a bulbasaur, a charmander and a squirtle."

"You've been busy today."

"Yeah, and I'm very tired."

"But before you go off to get some rest, you should know that the purify chamber is active now."

"How does it work?"

"Just stand on that central disc and you'll be able to view the hologram's of the boxes. You can move pokémon from your boxes and party into the chamber."

"Give it a try with one of your pokémon." Lily said.

"We've put in some of our pokémon in there as a temporary basis so the machine works." One of the scientists said.

"The tempo has been maxed out as well." Another added.

"Tempo?" Jovi asked.

"We'll give you a full tutorial tomorrow morning." Krane replied.

"Erm, ok." Jovi hesitantly stood on the centre disc and the purify chamber activated. She was suddenly surrounded by a hologram display of pokémon that were in the first purify chamber. The pokémon were noctowl to ninjask to forretress to geodude. There was also a hologram of a computer in the corner. Jovi touched that hologram and a display of her pokémon storage box was displayed. The only pokémon that was in there was the shadow squirtle. Jovi at first couldn't figure out what she had to do in order to move the squirtle into the purify chamber. She then suddenly had a memory of watching her brother using the machine three years ago. She remembered her brother touching holograms to work the device. From this memory, she was able to figured out how to work the machine. She touched the squirtle picture and it began to follow her finger, until she touched a ring in the centre of the pokémon that were in the first purify chamber. The squirtle picture then stopped in the centre and an arrow appeared indicating that it was facing the ninjask.

* * *

The people who were watching Jovi use the device were incredibly impressed as to how quickly she had grasped the concepts of how to work the device. She had figured out only slightly slower than her brother had figured it out. Tomorrow morning, they would give her a description of the finer points of how the chamber worked. When Jovi was finished, all of the holograms disappeared and she was able to see the room properly. She felt a little disorientated after the experience, plus she was incredibly tired and needed to get some sleep. Krane came up and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Jovi, you figured that out nearly as your brother." Krane complimented.

"Thanks." Jovi replied.

"That pokémon that you placed inside will be purified constantly. Your PDA will tell you when the heart gauge is empty."

"How?"

"A feature in the shadow monitor."

"I see."

"But if you only caught four shadows, how come you had one in your box?"

"The herbalist asked me to take her munchlax off her hands."

"I see. That's why you had a shadow in your box."

"I suppose your heading off to bed now?" Lily asked.

"Before I do, there's something I need to ask you." Jovi replied.

"What do you need to know?"

"What methods of purifying shadow pokémon are they other than the cologne case and the purify chamber?"

"Well, keeping a shadow in your party helps. Also send it out into battle as often as you can."

"Oh, and sometimes, shadow may go completely wild after using an attack." One of the scientists said.

"Oh yeah, reverse mode. If that happens, just call the pokémon's name and it will calm down." Krane added.

"Is there anything else?" Lily asked.

"Yeah. I found this at the key lair." Jovi replied, handing Lily the key card she had found. Lily took the card and had a good look at it. She even let Krane have a quick look at the card as well.

"I have to admit, that design doesn't ring a bell." Krane said.

"There may be some answers in the key lair." Lily suggested.

"Or the shadow lab in the middle of the desert." A scientist suggested.

"Hmmm." Jovi thought to herself.

"Jovi, you get some sleep and we'll think a little more about it tomorrow." Lily said.

"Ok."

"Actually, before you go. Sometime tomorrow, you should go to agate village."

"Why there?"

"It's a important location for purifying shadow pokémon. I'll explain a little bit more tomorrow."

"Ok then. I'm heading to bed now."

"Jovi, thank you for your help so far." Krane replied.

"It's no problem Krane. I may be able to see my big brother again."

"Possibly, but we have no idea of where he is." Lily replied.

"One last thing, we have no way of knowing how many shadow pokémon have been created. You'll need to find some kind of list." Krane added.

"I'll try. Goodnight." Jovi replied.

* * *

When Jovi returned to her room, she immediately took the poké balls that contained all of her pokémon and placed them on the desk. She also took the snag machine off her arm so she could sleep. The bag that contained all the healing items and poké balls was placed under her desk. She then went over to the poké balls and let Plipli and Mimi out. She didn't want to release any of the shadows, as there was no telling what they would do. Letting out munchlax was also a little risky as it would likely wonder off. Plipli and Mimi immediately let out squeals of joy when they came out of their poké balls. They jumped up and onto Jovi's bed while she changed into her sleeping attire. The snag machine was placed on a hook on her door so she would remember it. By the time she had changed into her night attire, Plipli and Mimi had fallen asleep together on the pillow. She gently stroked the two sleeping pokémon.

"You have done me very proud today. We've got a busy future so take as long a rest as you need." Jovi said to her pokémon. They didn't make a sound at all. Jovi smiled to herself and went over to her desk. She picked up her diary and a pen and returned to the bed. She sat on the bed gently, so as not to disturb Plipli and Mimi, and began writing up the day's events.

"Dear diary…

Today has been such a day. When I woke up, I found that Lily had left a PDA in my room. After I opened it, it automatically registered my details and gave me a trainer ID number. Plipli and Mimi actually helped me figure out how to use the device as well. There was also an e-mail message on the PDA from Lily. She and Krane wanted to speak to me. Krane then told me that there had been alleged sightings of shadow pokémon in Gateon port. I had thought that big brother had gotten all of the shadow pokémon three years ago. They gave me the snag machine that brother had used and asked me to investigate the situation. The machine really did feel funny when I first put it on but I eventually got used to the feeling. When I arrived at Gateon port, I ran into my friend Emili in the poké mart. She did tell me about a particularly violent pokémon that she had faced recently. After that discussion and a few purchases, we actually had a pokémon battle, the first of many throughout the day. Emili forfeited after her volbeat suffered Plipli and Mimi's attack. Before we could go and heal, we noticed something at the Krabby club. A thug armed with dangerous pokémon was starting a fight. I ended up getting involved after he challenged Emili. The guy was called Naps and he sent out a poochyena and a rhyhorn against Plipli and Mimi. The poochyena was easily taken down with Mimi's quick attack. The rhyhorn tried to attack Mimi but fell to Plipli's water pulse. Everyone around sure were surprised at the water pulse attack. But after that, he sent out a zigzagoon. That pokémon turned out to be a shadow pokémon that I had to take away from him with the snag machine. I really felt guilty about it but there was no other option. After I snagged the zigzagoon, he tried to run away but tripped up on the herbalist's munchlax. We were also able to speak to him about where he got the shadow. He said that he took it from a scientist at the ruined cipher key lairs. He also said about rumours about another XD shadow pokémon. I remember hearing about the first XD shadow pokémon. That was a lugia that my brother was able to capture. I have no way of knowing what this XD is though. I already fear it. I also had a chat with the police and gave them my PDA number so they could contact me if they found out anything. After that fiasco, I went with Emili back to her house to have a drink. I also tried taming the shadow zigzagoon, but didn't have much luck until Acri gave me a cologne case to use on it. That seemed to make it really happy. Acri also told me that it would help purify it. I then left to return to the lab, but as I was leaving, the herbalist asked me to take her munchlax off her hands. I agreed to take it from her and now have a munchlax. When I told Krane about what had happened at the port, he mentioned something about a mysterious figure taking a train away. I'm pretty sure that it was the XD shadow, but it was unlike anything that I have heard of. It kept changing shape on what I heard from Krane. After that, I went to the ruined cipher key lair to see what was there. I couldn't get in but three cipher peons that were so hilarious as they were so ridiculous challenged me. I ended up a snagging shadow bulbasaur, charmander and squirtle from them. After they fled, I found some kind of key card on the floor. Krane isn't sure as to what its for, but there are a couple of suggestions. The purify chamber has been reactivated and the shadow squirtle is in there right now. It took a few minutes for me to figure out how to use the machine but I eventually sorted it out. Tomorrow, I'm heading to agate village. I have no idea why, but I'll find out tomorrow morning. After going to agate, I'll be going around the region. I'm making it my duty to rescue all of these shadow pokémon. Also, I have the chance to realise my possible dream of finding my brother. I'll take you with me diary so I can continue to record what happens. Perhaps you will take place in a museum somewhere one day, but that may be wishful thinking."

After finishing with her diary, she placed the diary on the desk and returned to the bed. Plipli and Mimi were still fast asleep on top of the bed, a sight that always filled Jovi's heart with joy. It was nice to see her prized pokémon happy with each other. But tomorrow would be the start of an incredible journey for Jovi. She felt that shoe would have to travel to the four corners of the region to try and rescue all of the shadow pokémon that there were. It would all begin the following day. Jovi carefully climbed under her bed covers, so Plipli and Mimi weren't disturbed and quickly fell asleep. She didn't notice that the same figure that was at the cipher key lair was outside the lab. It was looking at the lab intently, it's eyes glowing sky blue. It then flew off again into the night.

A/N: I'd just like to point out the purpose of the diary entries that occur every so often. They basically sum up what has happened so far and sort of point in the direction that the story will go next. They won't be that often though.


	7. Trouble in Agate

**Trouble in Agate**

Jovi woke up quite early that morning, well early for her. She had a few things that she needed to sort out in preparation for her journey. She needed to take a fair amount of stuff with her, as she knew that she would be gone for a few days. She knew this because her brother was gone for a few days when he went on his journey. She had no idea of how long the journey would be, as there was no way of telling how many shadow pokémon there were. When her brother went on his journey three years ago, there were 83, so Jovi expected there would be more than that figure this time round. Plipli and Mimi were already awake and were looking at the snag machine hanging up on the door. They were still a little confused about the device. Jovi just got up and went over to them. They didn't notice that she was there until she patted them on the heads.

"Still worried about the snag machine?" Jovi asked. The two pokémon looked up at her and squealed. Jovi smirked and went over to the bed. She reached under and pulled out a backpack larger than the one that she had used the previous day, but could still be carried on her back. She would need this bigger bag to carry all the additional equipment that she would need on her journey. There was also a single sleeping bag under the bed, which she also pulled out. The sleeping bag was only one colour, navy blue. It looked like every other sleeping bag. There was also a small pillow in the sleeping bag. The set was used when they occasionally went on camping trips to study pokémon in the wild. They had recently discovered a couple of locations where wild pokémon appeared without the need for poké snacks. This was a forest on the other side of Mt. Battle. They had seen pokémon such as rhyhorn, jumpluff, parasect and quite a few others. Whether there were other such areas was unknown, as they hadn't been reported. But now, she would be using the sleeping bag if she had to camp out in the region for some reason. Jovi knew that Lily would worry about her the moment she would tell her that she would be going on this journey, just like she worried about her brother, but there was now little option. She would have to go and catch those shadow pokémon. She quickly put some clothes on and then began packing some essentials into the bag that she had pulled out. While she was doing this, the poké ball that contained munchlax suddenly opened up by itself. Munchlax looked around the scene and saw Jovi packing the bag. Jovi didn't notice munchlax, but Plipli and Mimi did. They turned around and tapped munchlax on the shoulder. Munchlax turned around and saw Plipli and Mimi looking at him.

"Plus, Plusle!" Plusle shouted. This shout caught Jovi's attention. She turned around and saw munchlax looking at Plipli and Mimi. She went over and picked up munchlax.

"What are you doing out of your poké ball?" Jovi asked. Munchlax didn't reply. He just yawned and rubbed its belly. This told Jovi what was bothering it immediately. She smiled and rubbed munchlax on the head.

"Yeah, I'm hungry too. I just need to pack some things then we'll get something to eat." She put munchlax down and rubbed Plipli and Mimi so they wouldn't get jealous. She still had a few bits left to pack though. While she was doing so, munchlax leapt up on the desk where the other three poké balls were. Out of curiosity, he touched the one that contained zigzagoon. As soon as he did, the poké ball opened and zigzagoon jumped out. It immediately began growling at everyone aggressively. Plipli and Mimi's cheeks sparked with electricity. This forced it to calm down. The growl also got Jovi's attention. As soon as she saw munchlax on the desk and zigzagoon on the floor, she realised that munchlax had let zigzagoon out of its poké ball. She immediately grabbed munchlax before it could let bulbasaur or charmander out.

"If you're going to be like that, you'd better stay in your poké ball until we have breakfast." Jovi picked up munchlax' poké ball and recalled munchlax inside. She then recalled zigzagoon before it could do any damage. She then resumed packing everything that she would need. It was going to be a very long time ahead of her. Once she had packed everything, including her diary, she grabbed her PDA and went out of her room to go and get some breakfast.

* * *

Once she had finished packing, Jovi took Plipli, Mimi and her poké balls into the dining area in the lab. The television was showing a breakfast show for the region. Plipli and Mimi were on the floor taking pokémon food from the bowls in front of them. Jovi was having a bowl of cereal and a glass of juice. Lily was sitting on the same table as her. As well as Plipli and Mimi, there was also a quagsire and a psyduck in the room, but they were to the side and not paying much attention to what was happening. Munchlax was in a different part of the room, as they knew that he would probably pinch everyone's food if he was given the opportunity. Jovi's shadow pokémon were in the room as well, with all the researchers keeping a close eye in them. They were actually too busy eating to start anything.

"So Jovi, you're going to try and find all of the shadow pokémon are you?" Lily asked.

"Yes Lily. I made up my mind last night. I want to save all of these shadow pokémon." Jovi replied.

"I actually figured that you'd say that. You're just like your brother."

"Hmm, maybe."

"Oh yeah, I still have that key card that you showed us yesterday." Lily gave Jovi the key card back. Jovi took the key card and put it in her pocket.

"I'd wondered what happened to that."

"Jovi, after breakfast, come to the main lab. There're some things that I need to give you for your journey."

"Sure thing. But please don't embarrass me." Lily just laughed.

"I won't. Where do you think you'll go first?"

"Like you said, I should head to Agate village first."

"That reminds me; I got in contact with Eagun earlier this morning." Jovi's eyes lit up when she heard that name.

"Eagun? The mythical trainer?"

"The same. He said that he'll be expecting your arrival at the village."

"Where is the village?"

"I'll show you later."

"Sure thing." Jovi looked over and saw that zigzagoon, bulbasaur and charmander had finished eating and were now growling. Jovi recalled them all into their poké balls before they could do anything. Munchlax, Plipli and Mimi were still eating though.

."Jovi, a little advice. Make sure…" Lily was cut off by the television broadcasting a sudden news bulletin. The news reporter was Secc of ONBS broadcasting in Pyrite town.

"This is Secc from ONBS with a special news bulletin. We have received reports of shady figures in the vicinity of Agate village. The group was led by a medium build man with a mystic looking robe. Authorities suspect that the criminal syndicate Cipher has returned after three years. Members of the public are advised to stay away from Agate village until the situation has been confirmed." Everyone was looking at the television screen in absolute horror. They had not suspected Cipher to pull of a stunt like this. Plipli, Mimi and munchlax ha just finished their food and had been startled by the sudden announcement, even though they had no idea of what it meant.

"Jovi, come to the office." Lily said, getting up from the table and leaving the room. Jovi recalled her remaining pokémon and followed her.

* * *

When Jovi arrived at the office, she found Lily at the desk with a few bags on the desk and a card as well. There was a trace of worry in her eyes, as she was worried for the safety of Eagun as well as everyone at Agate village. Jovi went up to the desk and looked at Lily in the eye.

"Ok then, where is Agate village?" Jovi asked. Lily took the bags off the table and rolled out a map of the region.

"Agate village is on the borderline between the forest and the desert to the east of here. It's fairly close to Mt. battle, but it is a bit of a distance." Lily replied.

"Ok, I'd better grab my things and go off to save the village."

"Before you go, there're some things for you." Lily picked up the two bags that had been on the table just a moment ago. She opened one of them and showed Jovi the contents. There was a bunch of pokémon healing items and some great balls inside.

"Those will help you in the battles you're going to be involved in." Lily said.

"And what's in the other?" Jovi asked.

"A 3 day food supply. It should keep you going for a little while."

"Thanks."

"One last thing, slot this card into your PDA." Lily gave Jovi the card that was on her desk. Jovi inserted the card and opened the PDA. When it was opened, a new feature was added to the main menu. This new feature was labelled 'region map'. It was fairly obvious what this was.

"Great, that will probably be the most useful item of the lot."

"It can also record the locations of wherever you visit via a satellite link. You can also learn where possible locations to explore are as well. Use it well."

"Thanks Lily, now I'd better get going."

"One last thing, be careful."

"I will Lily." Jovi took the two bags and returned to her room to fit her new items in the backpack. She then grabbed this and re-equipped the snag machine. She was finally ready to go to Agate village and see what was happening there. She quickly went to the outside after she had grabbed absolutely everything that she would need and went to her scooter. Everyone from the lab was waiting there for her, including Prof. Krane. He was the first to speak to Jovi.

"I never expected you to have to go to Agate like this, but it's important that you get there." Krane said.

"What is so special about Agate village anyway?" Jovi asked.

"In Agate village, there is a shrine to the time travel pokémon celebi. It has the power to purify shadow pokémon that have their heart open to you. Cipher probably plans to destroy it."

"Then I'd better stop them. That shrine is crucial to my mission."

"Ok, I know that we were going to fully explain the purify chamber but there really isn't time. Get to Agate now."

"If you'd let me get to my scooter I could get to it." Everyone moved aside and allowed reach her scooter. She started it up and waved at everybody.

"Good luck Jovi." Everyone said in unison.

"Thanks." Jovi replied. She then zoomed off on her scooter towards Agate village.

* * *

When Jovi arrived at Agate village, there were very few civilians about. They were presumably hiding from the shady figures that were around. Jovi could actually see a figure standing on the ledge above the bridge that she had to cross to reach the village. The figure saw her as well and jumped down to block her path. Jovi recognised the uniform that he or she were wearing as the Cipher uniform, except that it was grey rather than the multi-coloured one she had seen the other day.

"Sorry sweetie, but this village is off limits." The figure said.

"Look, I need to get into that village. Someone's expecting me." Jovi said.

"I still can't let you through."

"Then I'll have to force my way past you." Jovi threw the poké balls that contained bulbasaur and charmander into the air. The balls opened and the two pokémon landed and started growling.

"Ok, let's have some fun. I will not let you get past me, the mighty Ami!" Ami threw two poké balls into the air. One of them contained a pidgey and the other contained a rattata. As soon as the two pokémon were out, the aura catcher responded.

"Shadow." Jovi thought to herself. She looked at the two pokémon and examined them. She immediately saw the shadowy black aura. It was coming from the rattata. Jovi smirked with anticipation.

"Charmander, shadow char the rattata." Jovi instructed. She knew that it wouldn't be effective but she was hoping for a burn on rattata. Rattata took the hit and suffered a burn, just like she had hoped.

"Bulbasaur, shadow vine the pidgey!" Jovi instructed. Bulbasaur extended a vine and lashed at the pidgey, scoring a critical hit and knocking it out instantly. Ami recalled the pidgey into its poké ball.

"Rattata, shadow blitz! Punish their mistake." Ami shouted. Jovi then realised the mistake she had made. By burning the rattata, she had triggered its guts ability. The rattata charged at charmander and knocked it over. Charmander climbed to its feet and growled. It had been able to survive the heavy attack it had just taken.

"Bulbasaur, shadow vine!" Jovi instructed. Bulbasaur extended a vine and lashed at the rattata. This time, it didn't score a critical hit but rattata was knocked to the floor anyway. Jovi took the opportunity and loaded the snag machine. It had charged up within a few seconds.

"You can't keep that rattata." Jovi said as she threw the ball from the snag machine. Ami looked genuinely shocked when rattata was absorbed into the converted poké ball. All she could do was watch as it rocked from side to side. Suddenly, the ball locked and disappeared from the area.

"Gotchya." Jovi exclaimed. Ami suddenly panicked. She had lost the battle and her shadow pokémon.

"You'll regret that!" Ami shouted before running away from the village. Jovi turned her head and watched as Ami ran far away from the village.

"Now I need to find Eagun." Jovi said as she recalled bulbasaur and charmander. She then ran further into the village to try and find Eagun, the mythical trainer.

A/N: Sorry for the slight delay in this. Had a touch of writer's block. Anyway, the next chapter will see quite a few shadow pokémon battles, so look forward to it.


	8. Save the relic

**Save the relic**

After defeating and capturing the shadow rattata, Jovi entered the village fully. All of the doors of the houses were locked, though the pokémon centre was still open. Jovi secretly thought this was a bad idea, as Cipher peons could easily heal their pokémon and prevent her from doing so. Even though the pokémon centre was open, there was a cipher peon outside. This one was dressed exactly the same as the previous one. He or she was also blocking the door to the centre. Jovi had to get in for two reasons. Firstly, she figured that it would be a good idea to heal her pokémon. Secondly, she could ask where Eagun lived, as she wasn't that sure. With her mind made up, she went forward to challenge the cipher peon. The peon noticed Jovi and moved to block her path.

"Sorry lady, the pokémon centre is closed." The peon said.

"I need to get in there, so would you kindly move aside please?" Jovi asked. She was going to try and sweet talk him at first to see what would happen. The peon smirked.

"I'll tell you what. If you can defeat me in a battle, I'll let you in."

"Fine with me. I accept your challenge." The cipher peon took out two poké balls from her uniform and held them in one hand.

"The name's Gilbert. You won't beat me. Koffing, ekans, time to battle!" The two poké balls that were thrown by Gilbert opened up to reveal koffing and ekans. The koffing let off a puff of smoke while ekans hissed at Jovi.

"Zigzagoon, munchlax, time to battle!" Jovi threw the poké balls containing munchlax and zigzagoon into the air. Zigzagoon growled as soon as it came out and began eyeing the competition. Munchlax just rubbed its belly and looked dozily at the two opponents. Before anything else could happen, the aura catcher triggered. There was a new shadow pokémon. Jovi looked at the two opponents to spot the shadow. She eventually saw which shadow was giving off the shadowy aura; the ekans. Jovi figured that ekans wouldn't be easy to catch. She noticed that neither of her pokémon were intimidated by the ekans' appearance, telling her that it wasn't an intimidate ekans. That said she wasn't sure what else ekans could have.

"Munchlax, use yawn on ekans!" Jovi instructed. Munchlax looked at the ekans and yawned loudly. Ekans looked back and yawned immediately afterwards.

"Koffing, use toxic on munchlax!" Gilbert shouted. The koffing swelled up and belched up a ton of toxic sludge at munchlax. The attack found its mark but munchlax crawled out of the sludge completely unaffected.

"Ha, immunity." Jovi smirked.

"Drat, I was hoping it would have thick fat instead of immunity."

"Zigzagoon, shadow blitz the koffing!" Zigzagoon powered up and charge as fast as it could at koffing. The attack found its mark and sent koffing into the wall of the pokémon centre, but it was still conscious and able to float. It returned to the area of battle.

"Ekans, shadow hold!" Ekans unleashed a sphere of dark energy that enveloped munchlax and zigzagoon. The aura then disappeared just as the two pokémon were completely invoked, but there was a shadow sphere around them.

"Ha, now your pokémon are stuck. They can't run away now." Gilbert sneered.

"They won't need to. Munchlax, use pound on the ekans!" Jovi shouted. Munchlax ran straight at the ekans and smacked it on the head. Ekans fell to the floor but quickly got up again.

"Ekans, shadow wave!" Ekans releases a small ball of shadow energy. As soon as it left the pokémon's mouth, it split into two balls. One hit munchlax and the other hit zigzagoon. Zigzagoon easily shrugged off the attack but munchlax staggered and nearly fell over.

"Zigzagoon, finish off the koffing!"

"Koffing, use tackle to fight off that zigzagoon!" The two pokémon began charging at each other. They both collided and knocked each other backwards. Zigzagoon was able to recover but koffing was knocked into the wall. This time it was down.

"Dang it." Gilbert muttered, recalling his koffing. At that moment, ekans yawned and fell asleep.

"Oh no!" Gilbert shouted.

"Munchlax, use pound!" Jovi instructed. Munchlax pounded the ekans again. While that was happening, Jovi began loading the snag machine and activating the device. Gilbert noticed this and quickly grabbed ekans' poké ball.

"Ekans, return!" Gilbert began recalling ekans the moment that Jovi threw the converted poké ball. As it turned out, the poké ball that Jovi threw hit ekans before it could be recalled and sucked ekans inside. Gilbert was absolutely horrified and ran off immediately, not wanting to wait and see if ekans would escape. As it turned out, ekans didn't escape and the ball was teleported to Jovi's storage system.

"That makes 6 shadow pokémon." Jovi said as she recalled munchlax and zigzagoon. She then went inside the pokémon centre. The only person there was the pokémon nurse. Jovi gave the nurse all of her poké balls for healing.

"Miss, do you know where Eagun the mythical trainer lives?" Jovi asked.

"Indeed. He lives in the house at the very top of the village." The nurse replied as she placed the poké balls on the healing machine.

"Thanks. I need to talk to him about a shadow pokémon crisis."

"In which case, I think you should hurry. I think the relic in this forest might be in danger."

"Why?"

"I'm sure Eagun will explain more when you speak to him." The nurse handed Jovi's poké balls back as she said this.

"Thanks ma'am." Jovi took her poké balls and left the pokémon centre. She was now heading over to Eagun's house.

* * *

When Jovi arrived outside Eagun's house, she could hear a large amount of commotion coming from inside the house. She immediately began to worry about Eagun's safety for some unknown reason. She shouldn't really, as he's the mythical trainer. He can easily handle himself. Even so, Jovi opened the door to see what was happening. She saw Eagun and his pikachu and another pikachu right inside the house. As a result, much of the interior was heavily damaged. Eagun's opponent was a cipher peon. As Jovi looked at the two pikachu's, her aura catcher responded. She had a look a t both pikachu's. The one closest to the cipher peon was a shadow pikachu.

"A shadow. No wonder the house is in such a mess." Jovi muttered.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Eagun instructed. Eagun's pikachu launched a heavy electrical attack at the shadow pikachu.

"Pikachu, shadow blitz!" The cipher peon shouted. The shadow pikachu rushed right out of the way of the thunderbolt and crashed into Eagun's pikachu. It staggered heavily but was able to keep on its feet.

"You say that you were once claimed to be the strongest trainer ever, but now you're weak. Give up Eagun." The peon shouted.

"I won't give up. You will not violate the relic in this forest Ferna!" Eagun shouted.

"We probably already have." Jovi had seen enough. She needed to help Eagun now, or everything would get too out of hand.

"What do you mean?" Jovi asked, walking into the house. Both Eagun and Ferna turned to look at Jovi. Eagun recognised her from his visits to the HQ lab.

"Jovi, you're here!" Eagun exclaimed.

"Ah, you should prove a little more fun." Ferna taunted.

"Go bulbasaur!" Jovi shouted, throwing the poké ball containing bulbasaur into the area. The bulbasaur growled evilly and looked at both pikachu's.

"Bulbasaur, shadow vine the pikachu I'm pointing at!" Jovi instructed, pointing to the shadow pikachu. Bulbasaur extended its vine and lashed at the shadow pikachu. The pikachu was knocked down but quickly recovered.

"Pikachu, shadow blitz!" The peon shouted. The pikachu rushed at full pelt towards bulbasaur.

"Pikachu, thunder wave!" Eagun shouted. Eagun's pikachu launched a thunder wave attack right at the shadow pikachu. The attack found its mark and paralysed the pokémon before it could strike. Jovi began loading the snag machine.

"Jovi, thank goodness you came when you did." Eagun said.

"There's not much time to talk. There's more trouble." Jovi threw the converted poké ball at the shadow pikachu. The pokémon was sucked inside before it could evade. Everyone watched the rocking poké ball to see what would happen. After a few seconds of rocking, the poké ball locked and disappeared.

"Yeah, got shadow pikachu!" Jovi exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter. By now our commander will have done what he would have wanted to." Ferna muttered, fleeing from the house.

"Eagun, are you alright?"

"I'm fine Jovi. You arrived at just the right time."

"What's going on?"

"Cipher are planning to destroy the relic in the forest."

"Why?"

"Because that relic can purify shadow pokémon like that bulbasaur you used."

"So the shadow pokémon couldn't be purified?"

"Exactly. We have to stop it from happening."

"Eagun, you're pikachu is worn out. I'll handle it."

"Thank you Jovi. To get to the relic, go through the cave near the pokémon centre."

"Thanks. I'll be back."

* * *

Following Eagun's directions, Jovi found the cavern that led to the relic. She couldn't see anybody in the cavern at all, but she had a feeling that there was somebody else nearby. Shrugging the feeling off, she continued walking through the cavern. A couple of the bridges that she had to walk across were getting weak so she had to be very careful. She had just about reached the end of the cavern when she heard a noise from above her. The next thing she saw was a cipher peon jump down from the ceiling of the cave and block her way.

"Hey, this area is off limits!" The peon shouted.

"And who are you?" Jovi asked.

"Name's Humuh. I'm guarding this area."

"Humuh, you're going to let me through!"

"I can't do that."

"Bulbasaur, charmander, go!" Jovi tossed the poké balls containing bulbasaur and charmander into the air. The two pokémon leapt out and growled.

"A battle, I like that." Humuh threw two poké balls into the air. One of them contained a zubat and the other contained a clefairy. The clefairy looked at bulbasaur and charmander intently. It looked like it wanted to destroy, a behaviour not normally seen in clefairy. It came to no surprise when Jovi's aura catcher responded. Jovi had a suspicion which was the shadow but had a look anyway. Just like she had suspected, the shadow pokémon was the clefairy. She smirked to herself; she had always wanted a clefairy but wasn't expecting to be able to get one like this.

"Bulbasaur, shadow vine the zubat!" The bulbasaur called out a vine and slammed it into zubat with all its power, knocking it out instantly. Humuh recalled zubat into its poké ball and glared at Jovi.

"A lucky hit, that won't happen again. Clefairy, shadow metronome!" The clefairy stuck two of its fingers into the air and started waving them from side to side. Jovi was a little worried. She knew what metronome did, but had no idea of what shadow metronome would do. She guessed in her head that it would be very similar to normal metronome. Before Jovi could launch a counter attack, clefairy's fingers glowed black. Two streams of dark vapour came out from its fingers and enveloped bulbasaur and charmander. When the vapour cleared, there were small balls of dark energy stuck to her pokémon.

"Shadow down, nice." Humuh muttered. She then glared at Jovi.

"You might as well give up now. Shadow metronome activates a random shadow attack. You may be on the receiving end of something very powerful." Humuh warned.

"I'm not scared. Charmander, shadow char!" Jovi instructed. Charmander launched its shadow char at the clefairy. This was of little effect, it didn't even burn it.

"Nice try." Humuh sneered.

"I'm going to have to use power. Bulbasaur, shadow vine!" Bulbasaur lashed at the clefairy with its shadow vine attack. Like the previous attack, this didn't do much either.

"Clefairy, shadow metronome!" Clefairy began waving its fingers away. Humuh smiled evilly, hoping that something good was going to come out. Again, Jovi didn't have time to counter before the attack was launched. This time, a thick black laser came from clefairy's fingers and was fired, straight into charmander. Even though it was a shadow, charmander suffered badly from the attack. When the laser hit charmander, there was an explosion which sent charmander flying into the cave wall and nearly into one of the streams.

"Ha, shadow laser!" Humuh taunted as Jovi recalled charmander into its poké ball.

"This may be dangerous, but I need to stop that thing. Munchlax, go!" Jovi threw the poké ball containing munchlax onto the field. Munchlax looked at the clefairy and rubbed its belly.

"Munchlax, yawn!" Jovi instructed. Munchlax yawned at clefairy and caused it to yawn as well.

"Clefairy, shadow metronome again!" Humuh shouted. Clefairy began waggling its fingers from side to side.

"Not this time. Bulbasaur, shadow vine!" Bulbasaur lashed at the clefairy. Like before, it didn't do much at all and clefairy was able to keep up the shadow metronome. Before anything else could be done, the stack was activated. This time, rays of dark energy shot from clefairy and up into the sky. They came back down and pierced munchlax, bulbasaur and clefairy at once. This time, Humuh gulped.

"Shadow half." Humuh muttered.

"Uh-oh. I'd better heal my pokémon." Jovi ran onto the field and used a potion on bulbasaur and munchlax. Munchlax looked at her appreciatively while bulbasaur just looked at her. The clefairy couldn't do anything in this round; it just stood there breathing heavily.

"Ah, it has to recharge after using shadow half." Jovi said aloud. Humuh was about to give it another command it yawned and fell asleep on the ground. This was Jovi's opportunity. She didn't hesitate in loading the snag machine. As soon as the poké ball was converted, she threw it at clefairy. The ball found its mark and drew clefairy inside the ball. Humuh was horrified. Her pokémon was weak and asleep. Now Jovi was trying to snag it. The snag was successful and the ball was sent to her storage system. Humuh just ran from the area, not saying anything. Jovi gave a sigh of relief.

"I'd better heal the pokémon before I continue." Jovi muttered. Rather than retracing her steps to the pokémon centre, she let all of her pokémon out of their poké balls. Charmander was still lying motionless. Zigzagoon, Plipli and Mimi hadn't battled since their last visit to the pokémon centre. She let them out so they would get some exercise. When zigzagoon came out, Jovi noticed something tangled in its fur.

"What have you got?" Jovi fished around in zigzagoon's fur to find what it had picked up. Zigzagoon actually found this relaxing and fell to the floor quite content. She eventually fished out a small yellow diamond.

"A revive." Jovi wasted no time on using the revive on charmander. The charmander woke up immediately and looked around. Jovi petted all of her pokémon before fishing out some potions.

"You have all done extremely well today. I'm proud of all of you. We just need to give one final push of energy." Jovi used the potions on those that needed them before recalling them back into their poké balls.

"Ok admin, whoever you are, I'm coming for you!"

* * *

Jovi raced out of the other side of the cave as soon as she had finished healing her pokémon. She saw the relic of the forest in front of her. Also in the area were two other figures. One was a cipher peon. The other was a tall male in a long robe. The robe was blue with stars, suns and moons on the fabric. It gave him the appearance of a mystic. He was also wearing what looked like a wizard's hat. The two were doing something to the relic, but Jovi couldn't work out what it was. She could tell that it wouldn't be good so she had to stop them.

"Hey you two!" Jovi shouted. The two figures turned around and looked at Jovi. She was now able to get a good look at the mystic looking figure. He was blonde and had piercing blue eyes. The figure looked at Jovi evilly.

"So, you were able to get past all of the guards were you?" The figure asked.

"There weren't that many."

"I presume that you want to stop my plans don't you?" Jovi noticed that he was holding a fuse wire in his hand. The fuse was connected to a bomb at the base of the relic. Jovi gasped when she saw this.

"You are not going to destroy that relic!"

"Lady, we have to. It is a threat to our plans."

"I won't allow it."

"If you insist. Ruth!"

"Master Breagull!" The cipher peon replied.

"Get rid of this pest."

"Yes sir!" Ruth pulled out a single poké ball and threw it towards Jovi. The ball opened and revealed a jigglypuff. As soon as it landed, it growled in a voice that was both scary and cute. Before Jovi could send out a pokémon to fight it, the aura catcher responded. The jigglypuff was a shadow. Jovi smirked; jigglypuff was another pokémon she had wanted for a long time. She was also nervous, as she knew what they were capable off.

"Zigzagoon, go for it!" Jovi shouted, throwing zigzagoon's poké ball into the battle arena. Zigzagoon growled at jigglypuff as it landed on the ground.

"Zigzagoon, shadow blitz!" Jovi instructed.

"Jigglypuff, shadow blitz back!" Ruth shouted. The two pokémon charged at each other and bounced off. They both landed and glared at each other.

"If only zigzagoon has some other attacks." Jovi muttered. As she said this, zigzagoon suddenly changed in its behaviour. It turned around and jumped into the grass. From there, it dug its back feet into the ground and kicked sharply, hurling a chunk of mud into jigglypuff's face. Jigglypuff rolled backwards and started rubbing its eyes.

"Mud slap!" Jovi exclaimed. She then remembered something that she had learned from her brother's journey. As shadow pokémon open their hearts, they regain some of their old moves.

"Jigglypuff, knock that zigzagoon to oblivion!" Ruth shouted. Jigglypuff tried to run into zigzagoon but missed completely and ended up running into the wall.

"Zigzagoon, have you remembered any other attacks?" Zigzagoon responded by opening its mouth and spraying a spread of stars. These stars found their mark and pushed jigglypuff further into the wall.

"Swift. I never you could do that zigzagoon." Jovi exclaimed while loading the snag machine. Zigzagoon looked up at Jovi. Instead of growling, it semi-smiled at her.

"Jigglypuff, shadow song!" Ruth shouted. The jigglypuff took a deep breath and started singing. The song wasn't like the normal song from a jigglypuff. It was very evil. Zigzagoon suddenly became very drowsy and suddenly fell asleep.

"Nice one jigglypuff, now finish it off!" Ruth shouted.

"Zigzagoon!" Jovi shouted. From her call, Zigzagoon suddenly woke up but not in time to evade jigglypuff's attack. Zigzagoon was knocked to the ground but was easily able to climb back to its feet.

"Zigzagoon, sue mud slap!" Jovi instructed. Zigzagoon then hurled a large lump of mud into Jigglypuff's face, knocking it over and blocking its eyes. It began walking blindly. Jovi started loading the snag machine, ready to attempt a snag.

"Jigglypuff, try your shadow song again!" Ruth shouted, not seeing what Jovi was doing. Jigglypuff took a deep breath and began singing again, but it was facing the wrong direction. As a result, zigzagoon wasn't affected.

"It's over Ruth!" Jovi shouted as the snag machine finished converting the poké ball. She threw the ball right a jigglypuff and it was sucked inside. The ball landed on the concrete and started rocking. Jovi and Ruth watched the ball as it rocked like crazy, with jigglypuff trying to get out. Eventually though, jigglypuff was too weak to escape and the ball disappeared, sent to Jovi's storage system.

"Yipe!" Ruth shouted. She immediately fled the scene. Breagull looked up at the triumphant Jovi and zigzagoon. He was holding the fuse wire that was connected to the bomb at the base of the relic. He was also a fair distance away, but in Jovi's line of sight.

"Humph, it doesn't matter. He brought me enough time to finish setting up the explosives. Now say goodbye to this relic." Breagull shouted. He drew a match and lit the fuse. It began burning slowly towards the bomb at the relic.

"So miss hero. What do you do now?" Breagull asked.


	9. The first admin

**The first admin**

Breagull had lit the fuse to the bomb at the base of the relic. It was burning at a steady pace. Jovi was looking at the fuse horrified while Breagull was laughing insanely. He thought he was going to win this battle and help ensure the success of the shadow plan.

"As soon as the fuse burns down, the relic will be destroyed. Then it will be impossible to purify shadow pokémon. I will be promoted from admin to vice admin after this" Breagull said aloud. Jovi heard this and then looked back at the fuse.

"So that's why the relic is so important. Well it's important to me as well as this village. I'm going to have to stop that fuse." Jovi muttered. The fact that Breagull was an admin didn't seem to occur to her. Breagull turned and glared at her.

"So, what are you going to do?" Jovi turned and looked at him. She then drew two poké balls.

"I'm going to save the relic. Plipli, Mimi, let's go!" Jovi threw the poké balls into the air and allowed Plipli and Mimi to come out. They immediately saw the fuse and were curious as to what was happening. Breagull just scoffed.

"Electric pokémon won't help you out here."

"These two will. Plipli, Mimi, extinguish that fuse with your water pulse attack!" When Breagull heard this, he couldn't believe it. At first he scoffed, not knowing of what Plipli and Mimi could do.

"Fool, plusle and minun can't…" Before Breagull could finish his line, Plipli and Mimi launched their water pulse attacks at the fuse wire. Breagull was absolutely flabbergastered. He couldn't believe that they could use a water attack.

"I don't believe it!" The fuse had been completely extinguished by the attack. Also, the end of the fuse was now soaking wet and completely unusable. His shock very quickly turned into anger as Jovi petted her prized pokémon.

"Great work guys, we saved the relic. Now we should be able to purify any shadow pokémon." Plipli and Mimi squeaked at their trainer. As long as Jovi was happy, they were happy. They were suddenly interrupted by a cry of anguish. Breagull was feeling the soaked end of the fuse. He now realised that his plan to destroy the relic was now useless.

"You little meddler! I'll destroy you now!" Breagull drew two poké balls from his robe.

"A battle then. Bring it on!" Jovi exclaimed. Plipli and Mimi stepped forward into a battle position.

"Smoochum, manene, go!" Breagull threw the poké balls to reveal a smoochum and a poké Jovi hadn't seen before. It was small and pink with what looked like a blue Christmas hat on its head. (Manene's the Japanese name for this new pokémon, the pre mr.mime. I don't know the English name.) Neither of these pokémon were shadows so Jovi would have to battle them. She had no idea of what manene would be capable off though, so she would have to battle carefully.

"Plipli, use thundershock on smoochum. Mimi, use helping hand." Plipli and Mimi joined hands and looked at smoochum. Mimi gave Plipli a charge then Plipli struck smoochum with thundershock. The target nearly lost it's footing but regained its composure. It had been severely hurt from the attack though.

"Manene, use light screen!" Manene put its tiny hands forward and extended a wall of light in front of it and smoochum.

"Smoochum, powder snow!" Smoochum opened its mouth and exhaled a small barrage of snowflakes that enveloped both Plipli and Mimi. The two took very minor damage though and didn't suffer any adverse effects.

"Mimi, use quick attack on smoochum. Plipli, quick attack the manene!" Jovi instructed. Both Plipli and Mimi zoomed at their respective targets at lightning speed. There was no time to dodge or block the attacks, as the light screen was penetrated. Smoochum was so weak from the thundershock that it couldn't survive the hit while manene was able to stay on its feet, even though it had obviously taken heavy damage. Breagull recalled his fainted smoochum and pulled out another poké ball.

"Spoink, go!" The poké ball opened to reveal a spoink. This pokémon wasn't a shadow either. Jovi was beginning to wonder if he had any shadow pokémon at all. Jovi had to keep focus so she could win this battle.

"Manene, use reflect!" Manene again stuck out its arms and produced another wall of light behind the light screen. This one also spread between both Breagull's pokémon. Now both types of damage was going to be reduced. Jovi had to think of a new strategy. However, the first thing that had to be done was to take down that manene. This wouldn't be easy now that barriers were up. Her only option was to overpower the barriers.

"Plipli, thundershock the manene. Mimi, use helping hand." Jovi instructed. Plipli and Mimi joined hands and did the trick that they had done several times before. The light screen blocked half of the electricity, but the other half penetrated the barrier and reached manene. Thee attack had been weakened, but it was still enough to overpower the pokémon and knock it out. Breagull sighed and recalled it into its poké ball.

"Natu, you're up!" Breagull threw another poké ball into the air and released a natu. The aura catcher still wasn't responding at all. Jovi was surprised at Breagull's choice of pokémon though. Even with light screen in play, natu was in terrible danger.

"Spoink, use psywave!" Breagull shouted. Spoink released a wave of psychic energy and aimed it at Mimi. The attack found its mark but it didn't seem to do that much damage. But Jovi knew that psywave could inflict serious damage though. She decided to take down the spoink first.

"Plipli, thundershock. Mimi, helping hand!" The two joined hands again but this time, Plipli did something different after it had been given a power charge. Her body became charged up with electricity and she began running towards the spoink, bypassing the light screen and reflect and made full contact. Jovi then realised what had just happened; Plipli had just forgotten thundershock and learned spark.

"A spark attack. Great going Plipli!" Jovi exclaimed, especially since spoink was completely overwhelmed by the attack. It had obviously suffered a critical hit and fainted on the spot. Breagull pulled a sinister smile as he recalled his spoink.

"You asked for it now. Go, kadabra!" As soon as kadabra landed, it held out its spoon, which was in fact a twistedspoon, and focused at it, sending shivers down Jovi's spine. The twistedspoon not only bent but also reformed and floated around kadabra's head. Then the aura catcher activated. Jovi immediately looked at the kadabra.

"A shadow pokémon!"

* * *

The kadabra was indeed a shadow pokémon. Jovi had begun to think that Breagull wouldn't have a shadow pokémon, but this had proved her wrong; he had a very powerful shadow. This suddenly made things very bad. Jovi had to defeat the natu quickly so they could go for the kadabra.

"Plipli, use spark on the natu. Mimi, use helping hand!" Jovi shouted. Mimi grabbed Plipli's hand and charged her up. Plipli then covered its body with electricity and charged at the natu. Even with the protection from light screen, natu was defeated instantly. Breagull recalled his natu, still with a smile on his face. He was now very confident now that his shadow pokémon was out.

"It's not over yet. Kadabra, use shadow mind!" Breagull shouted. Kadabra glared at Plipli and Mimi. Its eyes suddenly glowed black and the two cheering pokémon were levitated off the ground. Kadabra then waved the hand that was holding its twistedspoon. Plipli and Mimi flew through the air and collided into each other. They then suddenly landed on the floor but were able to get up.

"Plipli, Mimi, are you two ok?" Jovi asked. Plipli and Mimi started walking erratically. They had been confused by the attack. It left Jovi with little choice.

"You two had better rest and leave this to the others." Jovi said while recalling her pokémon. She then took out two other poké balls.

"Zigzagoon, bulbasaur, it's your turn!" Jovi threw the poké balls containing bulbasaur and zigzagoon onto the field. As son as they landed, bulbasaur and zigzagoon eyed the kadabra.

"Guys, I'm counting on you." Jovi said. Zigzagoon turned and semi-smiled while bulbasaur just grunted.

"You can't defeat my kadabra girl. You might as well quit now." Breagull taunted.

"I'm not giving up. Bulbasaur, shadow vine!" Bulbasaur drew one of its vines and lashed at the kadabra. This did hardly anything though. Breagull just laughed.

"Zigzagoon, use mud slap!" Jovi shouted. Zigzagoon jumped onto the grass and hurled mud right into kadabra's eyes. It staggered and then began rubbing at its eyes.

"Kadabra, shadow rush!" Breagull shouted. Kadabra tried running vaguely at one of Jovi's pokémon but missed, nearly running into the wall like jigglypuff did.

"Zigzagoon, use your swift attack!" Zigzagoon opened its mouth and sprayed the swift attack at kadabra. Using shadow rush had moved it out of the reflect protection, making it totally vulnerable. It staggered and then turned around to glare at zigzagoon.

"Bulbasaur, use shadow vine!" Jovi instructed. Bulbasaur again lashed at kadabra with one of its vines. This time it scored a critical hit and knocked it to the floor. It was now struggling to get up.

"Kadabra!" Breagull exclaimed. Jovi was now loading the snag machine. She was now ready to attempt a capture. If she were to capture this pokémon, it would deal a major blow to cipher.

"Breagull, I cannot allow you to keep such a dangerous pokémon." Jovi threw the converted poké ball at the very weak kadabra. Breagull's expression turned from confidence to fear. He began to panic about his kadabra. The ball was rocking from side to side, with everybody watching it. Bulbasaur drew a vine ready to strike out should it escape. The ball kept on rocking from side to side, kadabra desperately trying to escape. Just as Jovi began counting her chickens, the ball shattered and kadabra escaped. It looked back at Jovi evilly while Breagull smiled evilly.

* * *

"Uh-oh. It can still fight back." Jovi muttered.

"Kadabra, use shadow rush!" Breagull shouted. The kadabra charged at full speed towards bulbasaur. Bulbasaur was unable to evade and suffered a critical hit. It was knocked backwards at high speed and hit the wall of the cave. Incredibly, it was able to climb to its feet, but it was struggling to do so.

"Bulbasaur, are you ok?" Bulbasaur looked back at Jovi and growled. It wanted to continue fighting but it obviously couldn't continue for much longer. She decided that it would be best to allow it to rest for its sake.

"Bulbasaur, take a rest." Jovi said. Bulbasaur was recalled into its poké ball despite its objections. Jovi then took out another poké ball and threw it into the air.

"I know its risky but I have to do something to that kadabra. Go munchlax!" The poké ball opened up and munchlax stepped out into the area. It took one look at the kadabra and began to shake; its mere presence was terrifying for the young pokémon..

"Munchlax, don't panic. Use your yawn attack!" Jovi instructed. Munchlax obeyed instructions and gave a loud yawn, lulling kadabra into yawning straight afterwards.

"Kadabra, use shadow mind!" Breagull shouted. Kadabra's eyes glowed black as both munchlax and zigzagoon were levitated into the air. Kadabra waved a hand and the two pokémon collided in mid air, just like Plipli and Mimi did before. Zigzagoon looked relatively unaffected by the attack but munchlax staggered heavily as soon as it landed. It also began walking in a circle; not seeming to know which way it was going. Jovi could tell that it was confused and decided to recall it. It seemed that kadabra's shadow mind had no effect on shadow pokémon, but against non shadows it did heavy damage and caused confusion all of the time.

"Munchlax return. Go charmander!" Jovi recalled munchlax and sent out her recently revived charmander. As soon as it came out, it growled aggressively at the kadabra.

"You can never beat me, give up now!" Breagull sneered.

"It's not over yet. Charmander, shadow char!" Charmander released the shadow char attack at kadabra. The attack hit but did hardly anything. It didn't even inflict a burn, but Jovi was hoping for that. Charmander was just weakening the kadabra a tiny bit more.

"Kadabra, shadow rush!" The kadabra charged at full speed, catching zigzagoon head on. Zigzagoon was sent sailing through the air and straight into Jovi, who was able to catch the pokémon in her arms.

"Zigzagoon, are you ok?" Zigzagoon looked up at Jovi after she asked that and barked appreciatively. It still had some energy left. Jovi was about to put the pokémon down when something in its fur caught her attention. There was a small sparkle in the pokémon's fur. Jovi fished around in that area and pulled out a small ball. The ball was yellow and black, the colours alternating on the balls surface. Jovi immediately recognised what it was, and at this very moment it would prove incredibly useful.

"An ultra ball! When did you get this?" Jovi asked. Zigzagoon just barked in response. Jovi let it drop to the floor again and looked at the kadabra. While Jovi had been examining Zigzagoon, it had fallen asleep due to the effect of yawn. This was the opening that Jovi needed. She immediately began loading the snag machine with the ultra ball that she had found.

"No!" Breagull exclaimed. The snag machine finished converting the ultra ball very quickly.

"It ends now Breagull!" Jovi threw the converted ultra ball at the sleeping kadabra. The ball easily made contact and sucked the kadabra inside. Breagull gasped in shock again. This time kadabra was weaker than before, it was asleep and the ball was stronger. The ultra ball started rocking from side to side as the kadabra tried to escape the ball. Jovi and Breagull began looking at the ball intently, waiting to see what would happen. After a few seconds of rocking, the ultra ball locked shut. Kadabra had been captured.

"Its over." Jovi said under her breath.


	10. Purification

**Purification **

"I-I-I can't believe it." Breagull exclaimed, speechless of what had just happened. Not only had he lost the battle, he had also lost his shadow pokémon. He had failed his mission to destroy the relic and prevent purification. He was amazed that Jovi had foiled the mission completely. Jovi was hugging her zigzagoon tightly. To her surprise, it wasn't struggling to get loose, but it was licking her on the cheek. In many ways, it was thanks to zigzagoon that Breagull had been defeated. Charmander had come over to Jovi and was leaping up trying to get some attention. Eventually, Jovi allowed it to leap into her arms with zigzagoon so she could give it a cuddle as well.

"I'm proud of both of you, and everybody else." Jovi said to her pokémon. Both zigzagoon and charmander barked appreciatively. They were then interrupted by Breagull's voice.

"Curse you. You may have defeated me but you will not defeat cipher. Just you wait until I tell our grandmaster. If you're lucky, you'll be forced out of the region."

"And if I'm unlucky?" Jovi was a little concerned about Breagull's threat but decided not to show it.

"If you're unlucky, he'll release XD150 on you."

"So you have created another XD shadow pokémon!" Jovi was expecting this but she was still shocked that there was another 'un-purifyable' shadow pokémon.

"We have, and it's much more powerful than the lugia that was the XD001. I'm sure that you'll enjoy it!" With those words, Breagull fled the scene. On his way, he dropped 2,000 in prize money and a small disc. Jovi went over and had a look at what he had dropped. She firstly picked up the money.

"His loss. I'll treat it as prize money for winning the battle." Jovi pocketed the prize money and then had a look at the disc that Breagull had dropped. It was labelled 'partial shadow list'. This label pickled Jovi's attention.

"A shadow pokémon list?" Jovi took the disc and inserted it into her PDA. As she did, the shadow monitor was loaded. It showed all the shadow pokémon that she had caught so far, up to kadabra, and a few more pokémon labelled 'location unknown'. The pokémon on the list below kadabra were…

11. Sentret

12. Hoothoot

13. Machop

14. Metapod

15. Kakuna

16. Tentacool

17. - - - -

"An incomplete list. I can't do much preparation with this. None of these pokémon are stronger than Lugia so none of them could be the XD150." Jovi muttered.

"And how did you arrive at that conclusion?" A voice from behind asked.

"Logic." When Jovi replied to this, she suddenly turned around. She suddenly realised that she had replied to somebody behind her. She sighed with relief when she saw Eagun with his pikachu. Jovi looked at the mythical trainer and smiled.

"It's you. You startled me." Jovi said.

"Sorry Jovi. I wanted to see what was happening." Eagun replied.

"One of the cipher admin's was trying to destroy the relic."

"I'm not surprised that they'd try. That relic is key in purifying shadow pokémon."

"The admin mentioned that. How does it actually work?"

"The relic was made to honour the time travel pokémon celebi. Celebi has the power to open the hearts of pokémon that have closed their hearts. The relic is believed to contain some of celebi's power."

"It has celebi's power?"

"Nobody's sure how that was done. There are beliefs that it was actually made by celebi."

"How can a pokémon make a relic like this?"

"The truth is nobody knows. Either way, it's great that you saved the relic."

"Pi-ka chu!" Eagun's pikachu exclaimed.

"It's lucky that I was coming here anyway." Jovi said.

"Why were you coming here?" Eagun asked.

"I wanted to talk to you about purifying shadow pokémon."

"Why don't we head back to my house and talk over some food."

* * *

A few minutes later, Jovi and Eagun were in Eagun's house having some toast. Jovi's pokémon were sitting around the table eating out of bowls, with Plipli and Mimi sharing a bowl. Munchlax had more food than everyone else because of its bigger appetite. The shadow pokémon had become much less violent so they were allowed to eat with the other pokémon. Zigzagoon especially, since it had been with the group the longest other than Plipli and Mimi. While she was eating, Plipli was keeping an eye on the shadow pokémon, like Jovi had asked her to. Jovi had also asked Mimi to keep an eye on munchlax while he was eating. Eagun's pikachu was keeping as big a distance from the shadow pokémon as it could, as it was nervous being around them after fighting the shadow pikachu earlier. Beluh wasn't there; she had died the previous year. Eagun was lonely now that she was gone but he was still coping with the loss thanks to pikachu. Jovi took a bite of her toast and then turned to look at Eagun, who had finished his slice of toast.

"Eagun, what methods of purification are there?" Jovi asked. Eagun turned and had a look.

"From what I'm aware from experience and from what Prof. Krane has told me, there are several methods. But sending them into battle is one of the better ones." Eagun replied.

"Are there any others?"

"Just keeping them in the party is supposed to help as well, as is using scents from the cologne case."

"Considering on how long I've had some of these shadows, they should be ready soon." Jovi looked at her pokémon as she said this. She was mostly curious of zigzagoon. It had been acting incredibly docile ever since her battle with Breagull. In fact, they all were. Bulbasaur was still a little aggressive but it was no longer unprovoked.

"One other thing Jovi. The transformation into shadow pokémon seems to affect their minds. When they get purified, they may learn a move that they cannot normally use."

"Like?"

"Like… when your brother purified the teddiursa, his first shadow, it learned how to use refresh, a move that teddiursa can't normally use."

"I'm not sure that's unique to shadow pokémon."

"Why's that Jovi?"

""You know Plipli and Mimi right?"

"Your plusle and minun, yeah."

"Before I started this adventure, I found out that they can use water pulse."

"How odd. Perhaps there's something in Orre's atmosphere that tweak's the pokémon's brain into using moves it can't use normally."

"Min-min!" Came a cry from the room. Eagun and Jovi looked up and saw Mimi and munchlax having a confrontation. Munchlax had finished eating and was now eyeing Plipli and Mimi's dish. It had a piece of food in its paws. Mimi had noticed and was also holding onto the food, trying to take it away from munchlax. Munchlax was desperately trying to hold onto the piece of food that it was holding. Eventually, it raised its hand and hit Mimi with a pound attack. Plipli leapt to Mimi's defence and hit munchlax with quick attack.

"Guys, stop fighting! Munchlax, return!" Jovi tried to recall her munchlax but it jumped out of the way of the red beam. Ht then suddenly took a huge mouthful from Plipli and Mimi's food and made a runner for the door. It ran past charmander in its hurry. Charmander had noticed what was going on and tripped munchlax with a sweep of its tail. Munchlax climbed back to its feet and tried to run again. Zigzagoon clicked of what was happening and blocked munchlax's exit with a swift attack, forcing munchlax to stop. Bulbasaur had also noticed what was happening and then pulled out its vines, snagged munchlax and suspended it in the air. Munchlax tried to struggle but couldn't wriggle free. Jovi was then able to recall munchlax into its poké ball. When it was back inside, she looked at the poké ball.

"I'll deal with you later." Jovi said angrily. She stepped down from the chair and petted all of her pokémon in turn.

"Thanks for stopping munchlax." The pokémon snuggled close to Jovi and allowed themselves to be petted. Once she finished petting, her PDA sounded. It wasn't the sound that signified an e-mail; it was a beeping sound. Jovi opened the PDA and had a look. She noticed that where there had been a purple bar next to zigzagoon, bulbasaur and charmander, there was now a flashing white bar. Jovi wasn't sure what that meant but Eagun could tell just by looking at the shadow pokémon what was happening.

"Looks like your three shadows are ready to be purified." Eagun said.

"They are?" Jovi asked.

"They certainly are. Let's go to the relic and finish the job."

* * *

Eagun and Jovi made their way to the relic in the forest, with Jovi's pokémon in their poké balls. Jovi had made a mental note to give munchlax a serious talking to when she had the time. Its behaviour regarding the food wasn't acceptable at all, but she had expected it to act like that. When they arrived, Jovi took hold of the poké ball that contained her zigzagoon and waited for instructions on how to use the relic to purify her pokémon.

"Ok Jovi. In order for the pokémon to return to normal, it has to go through a purification ceremony." Eagun began.

"And how do you do that?" Jovi asked.

"Firstly, take out the pokémon to be purified." Jovi opened up the poké ball that contained zigzagoon so it could come out. Zigzagoon looked around the scenery, but at the relic in particular. It could sense an energy from the relic and walked over to the relic.

"Now, place zigzagoon on top of the relic and it will happen automatically." Eagun instructed. Jovi nodded and went over to her zigzagoon. She stroked it and then picked it up.

"Come on zigzagoon, let's get you back to normal." Jovi said. Zigzagoon barked and allowed Jovi to place it on top of the relic. Jovi backed away as soon as zigzagoon was on the top of the relic. The relic began to glow green when zigzagoon was on top. The green aura extended and green strands touched zigzagoon. Zigzagoon felt no pain to this and relaxed. Then, small balls of dark energy flew from zigzagoon's body and flew away from the relic and into the air. Eventually, the dark balls stopped coming out and the green glow waded, revealing zigzagoon standing on top of the relic looking extremely happy with itself. The shadowy aura that used to surround it had completely disappeared. Jovi knew this because the aura catcher came out briefly. That was how she was able to see the balls of dark energy, but there was no aura around zigzagoon. The pokémon leapt off the relic and into Jovi's arms. It immediately began licking Jovi's cheek as well.

"Excellent. Looks like Zigzagoon is back to normal. You can give it a nickname if you want to now." Eagun said. Jovi began to think for a moment while zigzagoon continued to lick her. She eventually came up with a nickname for the zigzagoon.

"You back to normal now. I'll call you Ziggy." Ziggy barked appreciatively to the nickname; it obviously liked the name.

"Ziggy, what moves can you actually do?" Jovi asked. Ziggy leapt down from Jovi's arms and looked at a tree in the forest. Its fur bristled and several small pins were fired at the tree. Jovi and Eagun recognised the attack immediately.

"Pin missile." Eagun said.

"That's nice Ziggy. Is there anything else?" Ziggy responded to this question by standing up on its hind legs and clapping. Jovi didn't recognise this attack, but Eagun did.

"Seems like Ziggy knows how to use encore."

"Encore, what does that do?"

"By applauding its opponent, the user can make the target repeat the last move that it used."

"I can see the potential uses for that." Ziggy leapt back into Jovi's arms and gave her another licking. Jovi laughed appreciatively and took out Ziggy's poké ball.

"Ziggy, you have a little snooze in your poké ball. I'll call you out later." Ziggy barked and Jovi recalled it into the poké ball.

* * *

Jovi then took the poké ball that contained charmander and opened it. As soon as it came out, charmander also looked around the scenery. It recognised the area, since it had been here before. Jovi went over to it and petted it on the head.

"Ok little guy, time to return you to normal." Jovi said. She picked up charmander and placed it on top of the relic. The same thing that happened to Ziggy happened to charmander. When the glow stopped and the dark balls disappeared, charmander was completely purified. It leapt down from the relic and into Jovi's arms. Jovi gave the pokémon a cuddle while it licked her a face. Eagun smiled at the scene. Jovi had now successfully purified two of her pokémon. She still had one more in her party to purify, as well as the others that she had captured. Jovi had also decided on a nickname for charmander.

"You're perfectly normal now Chauncer. Like the nickname?" Jovi asked her pokémon. Chauncer barked in response. Jovi let it to he ground and it looked up at her.

"Chauncer, I'd like to see what attacks you can use. Don't use any fire attacks as you might burn the forest down."

"Don't worry about that. If your Chauncer aims a fire attack at the relic, that will be fine." Eagun said.

"Won't that harm the relic?"

"It's very sturdy. It's believed to be indestructible."

"Indestructible?"

"The relic has survived hurricanes, earthquakes and a volcano eruption."

"An eruption?"

"Mt. Battle is a dead volcano. It erupted several years ago, before the training area was built. It's now under heavy surveillance so we'll know if it will erupt again."

"If you're sure. Chauncer, aim whatever fire attack you have at the relic." Chauncer looked at the relic and began glowing redder. The flame on its tail began to grow in intensity until it was as big as the relic. Jovi had to step back because of the heat. Chauncer then opened its mouth and unleashed a fireball at the relic. As soon as the fireball made contact, there was a huge explosion and a sight that resembled a localised firestorm. The inferno reached to a large width, forcing Jovi and Eagun to duck. The blast wasn't large enough to catch any trees so no fires were started. When the last ended, the relic was still standing. Eagun recognised the attack that Chauncer had used and couldn't believe it.

"Jovi, that attack was blast burn, the strongest fire type attack. It's very much like hyper beam." Chauncer was breathing very heavily, catching its breath after the intense attack. The flame on its tail had returned to its regular size now. Jovi couldn't believe that Chauncer had such a powerful attack under its belt. Chauncer had now caught its breath and was looking at Jovi with a smile of satisfaction.

"Chauncer, are there any other attacks you can do?" Chauncer responded by outstretching its paw. The paw glowed white and Chauncer then swiped at the air. Jovi recognised this attack.

"Hmm, metal claw. That's nice." Chauncer wasn't finished. It stood upright and balanced on one foot. It then began spinning wildly. As it was spinning, what looked like stars appeared to surround Chauncer, giving it a mystical look.

"Is that swords dance?" Jovi asked.

"No, that's actually dragon dance." Eagun replied.

"What does that do?"

"It's a mystical dance that boosts attack and speed. Charmander can't usually use that move." Eagun replied. Chauncer had one move left. This was simply a growl to nobody. Jovi now knew what attacks Chauncer could do and went over to Chauncer.

"Chauncer, perhaps you should have a rest in your poké ball." Jovi said. Chauncer nodded and Jovi recalled it into the poké ball.

* * *

."Right, bulbasaur's turn." Jovi muttered as she opened up bulbasaur's poké ball. Bulbasaur looked at the relic stone as soon as it came out, almost as if it knew that it was ready to be purified. Jovi went over to it and put it on top of the relic. When Jovi backed away, the whole process was repeated and bulbasaur was purified. As soon as the process was complete, bulbasaur leapt down from the relic and ran up to Jovi. It nudged Jovi's leg affectionately as soon as it reached her. Jovi picked it up and gave it a hug.

"You're back to normal now Bulby. Like the nickname?" Jovi asked. Bulby barked in response, showing its appreciation. Jovi let Bulby get back down onto the ground. Jovi decided that she'd have a guess as to what attacks that Bulby would have. She had a think about what moves bulbasaur's could use and came up with a couple of possible moves.

"Bulby, can you use leech seed?" Bulby reacted by using leech seed perfectly. The seed sprouted from the bulb and was fired at the relic. As soon as the seed hit the relic, it sprouted and vines covered the whole relic.

"Nice, now do you know vine whip?" Bulby responded by unleashing a vine and lashing it around the air, being cautious as to not hit anything. Jovi nodded in satisfaction.

"Ok Bulby, I understand that you can use leech seed and vine whip. What else can you do?" Bulby responded by shaking its bulb. The bulb then shot out a small cloud of yellowish particles at the trees. From the trees, a wild caterpie fell from the tree, fast asleep.

"Was that sleep powder?" Jovi asked.

"No, that was spore." Eagun replied.

"I didn't think bulbasaur could use spore."

"Normally they can't."

"Is there any other attacks? You should have one left." Bulby began to focus heavily. The bulb on its back began to glow white. After a brief moment, a huge root sprouted from the ground just in front of Bulby. The root slashed through the air and then returned to the ground. Bulby was left breathing heavily.

"What was that?" Jovi asked.

"Frenzy plant. The strongest grass type attack." Eagun replied.

"Similar to hyper beam?"

"Yeah. I'm surprised that pre-evolved pokémon know such a powerful move." Bulby had regained its breath and had returned to Jovi's side. Jovi picked it up and pulled out its poké ball.

"Ok Bulby, you take a rest." Jovi said. Bulby barked and Jovi recalled it into its poké ball.

"Congratulations Jovi. You've now purified three shadow pokémon." Eagun said.

"Thanks Eagun."

"Jovi, there's something that I'd like to ask you."

"What do you want to ask?"

"Jovi, I would like to have a pokémon battle with you." Jovi's eyes lit up at this. She knew that her brother had beaten Eagun and now she had a chance to battle the mythical trainer.

"The chance to battle the mythical trainer? I'd be a fool to turn down such a challenge."

"Remember that I was once hailed as the most powerful trainer of all."

"That's why you're famous. One on one?"

"Wouldn't have it any other way. Ready for out first battle in three years pikachu?"

"Pi-ka chu!" Eagun's pikachu replied. Jovi pulled out one of her poké balls.

"Then I choose Ziggy!" Jovi let out Ziggy from its poké ball. As soon as it came out, Ziggy barked happily.

"Ok Ziggy, we've got a big battle right now. Do you very best, that's all I can ask." Jovi said. Ziggy barked in response. It then turned and looked at Eagun pikachu, ready to do battle. This was going to be one of Jovi's hardest battles ever, a battle with the mythical trainer. Inside, she hoped that she would be able to perform as well as her brother had done three years ago.

A/N: The partial list doesn't show the shadow that will be used by the next Cipher admin; that will be kept a secret until Jovi actually fights the admin.


	11. Battle with Eagun

**Battle with Eagun**

The battle between Jovi and Eagun was just about to begin. Jovi had just purified the first few shadow pokémon with the relic. She now had three newly purified pokémon. It was Jovi's zigzagoon, which had been nicknamed Ziggy, against Eagun's pikachu. This was probably going to be Jovi's toughest battle yet.

"You can make the first move." Eagun said.

"Very well. Ziggy, use mud slap!" Jovi instructed. Ziggy dug its feet into the ground and kicked a slap of mud towards pikachu.

"Pikachu, quick attack!" Pikachu avoided the mud with its speed and then crashed into Ziggy at full speed. Ziggy was knocked back a little but recovered quickly.

"Ziggy, pin missile!" The hairs on Ziggy's back bristled and several pins were sent flying towards pikachu. The darts hit the target and hit 3 times. Pikachu was knocked to the floor but got back up quickly.

"Pikachu, charge!" Pikachu's cheeks began to spark and electricity began to circle pikachu.

"Ziggy, time for encore!" Ziggy stood up on its hind legs and began to clap. Pikachu looked at Ziggy. Suddenly, stars appeared in its eyes and it smiled.

"Pi-ka!" Pikachu cried.

"Pikachu!" Eagun shouted. Pikachu had been affected by encore and used charge again, not wanting to do any other move.

"It worked. Ziggy, use swift!" Jovi instructed. Ziggy opened its mouth and fired the swarm of stars towards pikachu. Pikachu was caught and hit severely. It was able to remain conscious though. It still had stars in its eyes though.

"Pikachu, are you ok?" Pikachu was still stuck in the encore, using another charge attack. It had used charge three times now, leaving it rather open.

"Ziggy, use mud slap!" Ziggy dug its feet into the ground and kicked mud into pikachu's face. The attack made contact directly. Pikachu was knocked backwards and began rubbing its eyes. The stars had now disappeared from its eyes, as the encore effect had ended.

"Pikachu, try thunderbolt!" Pikachu's cheeks began to spark and it released a strong electrical attack. Because of the charge it had used before, the attack looked incredibly powerful. Fortunately for Jovi and Ziggy, the attack crashed into the relic and missed Ziggy. Jovi sighed with relief when she saw the attack hit the relic.

"Ziggy, swift attack!" Ziggy opened its mouth and fired the swift attack at pikachu. The attack found its mark and it appeared to score a critical hit, as pikachu flinched heavily from the attack. Somehow, it was still standing, but only barely.

"Pikachu, quick attack!" Pikachu gathered itself together and rushed at Ziggy. The attack found its mark and also scored a critical hit, nearly knocking Ziggy into the relic. Ziggy was able to climb back to its feet, even though it was fairly exhausted. Now both pokémon were running low on energy.

"Ziggy, pin missile!" Ziggy's fur began to bristle and the pin missile was fired at pikachu. The pins hit pikachu a total of five times and pikachu fell to the floor.

"Pikachu, are you ok?" Pikachu tried to get up. It had taken a severe beating from Jovi's Ziggy. Eventually, it ran out of energy and fell to the floor. Jovi couldn't believe it; she had defeated the mythical trainer Eagun in battle, just like her brother had done three years ago. Eagun recalled pikachu into its poké ball and smiled at Jovi.

"Well done Jovi. You are an excellent trainer, especially to defeat my pikachu." Eagun complimented. Jovi was busy stroking Ziggy, but she still heard Eagun's compliment.

"Thank you Eagun. I see why you are the mythical trainer." Jovi said.

"Ziggy fought incredibly well back then."

"As did your pikachu." Jovi finished petting Ziggy and recalled it into its poké ball.

"Jovi, why not come back to my house. There's something that I need to talk to you about."

"Sure thing. I could do with a sit down."

* * *

Jovi and Eagun returned to Eagun's house after they had finished their battle. They both had a drink of water in front of them. Jovi had let Plipli and Mimi out of their poké balls. The two were currently sitting on her lap and snuggling together. Eagun's pikachu was also out as well. Before Jovi had come into Eagun's house, she had gone to the pokémon centre to change her pokémon around. She had deposited, Ziggy, munchlax, Bulby and Chauncer and withdrawn the shadow kadabra, Jigglypuff, ekans and pikachu. They were still in their poké balls or, in kadabra's case, ultra ball for safety reasons. Eagun's pikachu was having a nap. It was tired out from its battle with Ziggy.

"Eagun, what did you need to talk to me about?" Jovi asked.

"About the journey that you're about to go on." Eagun replied.

"Is it some advice or whatever?"

"Indeed. There's no doubt that cipher will be angry with you for foiling this plan for destroying the relic. They will also be after you now that they know that you have a snag machine. You need to remain vigilant at all times."

"I was aware of that but thanks anyway."

"I'll ensure that you will have free access to the relic whenever you need to get there."

"Thanks."

"Oh, and by the way. I received a message yesterday from a friend of mine."

"A friend of yours?"

"His name is Vander. He's a trainer in Mt. Battle."

"I know where that is. I've always wanted to go there."

"He was telling me that he saw something peculiar a couple of days ago. It might be wise to talk to him about it."

"Did he say what he had seen?"

"Yes he did, but I didn't catch it clearly. It might be wise for you to talk to him about it in person."

"Ok. It will give me the opportunity to do some training at the sane time."

"I'll get in contact and let him know that you're coming."

"Thanks Eagun.

"One last thing, can you give me your PDA number?"

"Sure." Jovi gave Eagun the number of her PDA. Eagun wrote it down on a nearby piece of paper so he wouldn't forget it.

"If I learn anything or need to get into contact, I'll send you a message."

"Ok Eagun."

"Are you off to Mt. Battle now?"

"Yeah, I'll be off." Jovi looked down at Plipli and Mimi. She shook them both on the shoulder to wake them up. The two looked up at Jovi peacefully.

"Ok you two, we're off to out next destination. You two had better return to your poké balls." Jovi said. Both pokémon squeaked and Jovi recalled them into their poké balls. She then stood up and went towards the door.

"Thanks for everything Eagun." Jovi said.

"Good luck on your quest." Eagun replied. Jovi smiled and left the house to return to her scooter.

* * *

By the time Jovi had reached the entrance of Mt. Battle, it was nighttime. She was very tired and decided to set up camp outside the facility. Luckily, there was a lot of firewood around so she could build a reasonable fire. The fire was lit by Plipli and Mimi's electricity. Jovi had set up the sleeping bag that she had brought and was sitting on top of it with her diary in her hand. Because they were so close to Mt. Battle, Jovi felt fairly safe. Even so, she had asked Plipli and Mimi to sleep on top of her bag to guard them. Even then, the bag was going to be resting on top of her. She was going to be wearing the snag machine while she would sleep. While Plipli and Mimi were watching the sky, while snuggling together, Jovi was writing up the day's events in her dairy.

"Dear Diary.

Today was my first day away from home. While I was having breakfast at the lab, I learnt from the news that Agate village was being attacked by cipher. After leaving the lab, I went straight to the village. When I arrived, a cipher peon jumped me. She attacked me with a shadow rattata. After snagging the rattata, I entered the village and went to the pokémon centre. I was blocked by another cipher admin with a shadow ekans. I was able to snag this and gain access to the pokémon centre. After stopping at the pokémon centre, I was told where the mythical trainer Eagun lived. As soon as I arrived at his house, I found him under attack from a shadow pikachu. Eagun and me teamed up and I was able to snag the pikachu. Eagun then told me that they were planning to destroy the relic in the forest. Eagun gave me directions to the forest and I eventually found it, but I also found another cipher peon. This one had a shadow clefairy. This pokémon nearly defeated me but I was able to snag it though. After this battle, I used items that I had to fully restore my pokémon before going to the relic. There was another cipher peon there as well as a cipher admin. The admin immediately sent the peon after me. The peon's only pokémon was a shadow jigglypuff. This one was snagged quickly but zigzagoon also relearned two moves, mud slap and swift. When I defeated the cipher peon, the admin, whose name was Breagull, lit a fuse that was attached to a bomb at the base of the relic. Plipli and Mimi extinguished the fuse with water pulse. Breagull then attacked me with a variety of psychic pokémon. One of which, called manene, I had never seen before. During this battle, Plipli learned how to use spark. The admin also packed a dangerous shadow kadabra that nearly defeated me. It nearly took out Plipli and Mimi in a single attack. It was able to break out of a poké ball but I then found an ultra ball in zigzagoon's fur. This was able to capture the kadabra. After that, Breagull fled, mentioning an XD class shadow pokémon, the XD150. I already fear this pokémon. I have no idea of what it is but I know somehow it will be incredibly powerful. I also found a shadow list, but it was incomplete. I still have no idea of how many shadow pokémon are left. While I was having some food with Eagun, munchlax went a little out of hand. All of my other pokémon had to restrain it so I could recall it. After the meal, we discovered that my shadow pokémon were ready to be purified. Eagun and me went to the relic to get bulbasaur, zigzagoon and charmander purified. They all relearned some interesting moves when they were purified. Once they were purified, Eagun challenged me to a battle. I accepted the challenge and went up against his pikachu with my newly purified zigzagoon, which I had nicknamed Ziggy. It was a very tough battle but I eventually won, much to my amazement. I then rearranged my pokémon so I was carrying a new batch of shadow pokémon to purify. I then went back to Eagun's house, where he gave me some advice for my journey and told me about something that a friend of his had seen. I am now camping outside Mt. Battle, where Eagun's friend Vander is. Tomorrow morning, I shall enter Mt. Battle for some training and to find Vander to ask him about what he saw." Once Jovi had finished writing up her diary, she was now ready for sleep. She closed up her diary and placed it back in her bag. She then put her bag on the end of her sleeping bag, next to the snag machine. Plipli jumped on the snag machine while Mimi jumped onto Jovi's bag.

"Mimi, could you se water pulse to put out the fire for us please?" Jovi asked. Mimi looked up and fired a water pulse attack at the campfire to extinguish it. Jovi smiled, leaned forward and petted her pokémon.

"Goodnight you two." After saying that, Jovi leaned back on the pillow and quickly fell asleep. Plipli and Mimi fell asleep shortly after, but they were on Jovi's bag, reducing the risk of theft. Nobody was aware of a figure on the entrance building to Mt. Battle. It was the same figure that was at the Key lair and that had been outside Jovi's room at the lab. It was watching her carefully, with the same blue going eyes it had before.

"You have a long way to go." The figure said. The figure remained on the building and continued to watch Jovi as she slept.


	12. Super Freak Alert

**Super freak alert!**

While Jovi was sleeping, a couple of rogues approached Mt. Battle. They stopped when they saw Jovi fast asleep with the snag machine and her bag. The two also saw Plipli and Mimi fast asleep on top of Jovi. They were mostly looking at the bag and the two pokémon.

"Look at her. She's camping out with so little protection. She's such a fool." One of them said.

"But she looks like she could have some tough pokémon on her." The other replied.

"A plusle and a minun. They aren't that tough."

"But what about in her bag. Can you see her arm?"

"What about it?"

"She's got a snag machine. That suggests that she might have some shadow pokémon."

"The bosses favourite kind of pokémon."

"Exactly. We get them, we'll be in good points with the boss."

"Let's grab the plusle and minun first. Then we can take the real gems." One of them went over to Plipli and Mimi. He picked up Plipli by the neck. She woke up and screeched, waking both Jovi and Mimi. Without waiting for instructions, Mimi zapped the thug to save his partner. In shuck, the rogue dropped Plipli who then joined in the shocking. Jovi was now fully alert and looking at the two thugs. The electricity produced enough light for her to see her two attackers. The guy who had grabbed Plipli was a yellow haired guy wearing an orange shirt, riding goggles and shaggy jeans. The other was also a yellow head, but with a touch of orange. He was wearing a blue shirt and shaggy jeans.

"Plipli, Mimi, stop the attack. Use your electricity to relight the fire." Jovi instructed. Plipli and Mimi stopped electrocuting the orange suited guy and used their electricity to relight the fire. It hadn't been out long so was relatively easy to relight.

"Who are you?" Jovi asked. The first to speak up was the blue shirted guy.

"The name's Folly. The person that your pokémon just zapped is my partner Trudly." Folly replied. Jovi climbed out of her sleeping bag and looked at the two rogues.

"Why were you after my pokémon?"

"We're part of a team that will someday own all pokémon in the world. That includes your pokémon. Trudly was still unable to move because of what he had suffered. Jovi reached over and grabbed her bag.

"Well you're not getting my pokémon."

"You have no choice but to hand them over to us." Folly drew two poké balls and threw them towards Jovi. They opened up revealing a whismur and a lotad. Jovi smirked and reached into her bag. She then pulled out two poké balls.

"A battle huh. You'll regret it. Ekans, pikachu, go!" Jovi released the two pokémon into battle. As soon as it came out, ekans hissed menacingly while pikachu growled menacingly. The shadow aura didn't register. Folly's pokémon weren't shadows.

"Lotad, use astonish!" Folly commanded. The lotad looked at ekans and pulled a shocking face. Ekans jumped in surprise and banged its head into the floor.

"Pikachu, use shadow blitz on lotad!" Jovi instructed. Pikachu's shadowy aura intensified and it charged into lotad. The attack hit perfectly and did heavy damage, nearly knocking it out.

"Whismur, use uproar!" The whismur opened its mouth and began shouting loudly. Pikachu had to cover its ears. It fell to the ground but climbed back up again.

"Ekans, shadow wave!" Ekans looked at both its opponents and fired a ball of energy. This ball split into two and hit both pokémon. Whismur staggered but recovered. The lotad was too weak to take the hit and fainted. Folly had to recall it into its poké ball.

"Whismur, keep on going!" Whismur continued its uproar attack. This time, ekans suffered the effects, banging its head into the floor again.

"Pikachu, finish off that whismur with another shadow blitz!" Pikachu's aura built up again and it charged into whismur. Whismur couldn't take this hit and fainted on the spot. Folly growled and recalled it into its poké ball.

* * *

By this point, Trudly had recovered his body movement. He stepped forward in front of Folly.

"Looks like I'm up. Pineco, spinarak, go!" Trudly shouted as he released his pokémon. As soon as they landed, they looked at ekans and pikachu and glared at them. These two weren't shadow pokémon either. Jovi took out their poké balls.

"You two take a rest. Let another pair handle it." Jovi instructed as she recalled her two pokémon. She then took out one poké ball and her ultra ball.

"Jigglypuff, kadabra, go!" Jovi threw the poké balls into the air and let jigglypuff and kadabra out. As soon as they landed, they glared harshly at their opponents. Jigglypuff was actually growling, like it had when Jovi had first met it. Kadabra focused on its twisted spoon and it did the same stunt with the spoon that it had done before.

"Jigglypuff, use shadow song!" Jovi instructed. Jigglypuff took a deep breath and it began to sing its evil song. Within a few seconds, both the spinarak and the pineco had fallen asleep. Kadabra didn't seem to be affected by the song.

"NO!" Trudly shouted.

"Kadabra, shadow mind!" Kadabra's eyes glowed black. It extended its hand and levitated the pineco and spinarak into the air. With a swift move, the two pokémon collided. When they landed, the spinarak had fainted but the pineco hadn't. It hadn't even woken up from the thud. Trudly recalled his spinarak with a sigh.

"She has some impressive shadow pokémon." Folly muttered.

"Pineco!" Trudly shouted. The pineco responded to Trudly's call and woke up almost immediately.

"Jigglypuff, shadow song!" Jovi instructed. Jigglypuff took a deep breath and sang its evil song again, sending pineco straight back to sleep.

"Kadabra, use shadow mind!" Jovi instructed again. Kadabra focused on the sleeping pineco and levitated it into the air. Kadabra focused heavily and it began swinging around violently in the air. With a final wave of kadabra's hand, pineco was slammed into the ground. This time, it had fainted.

"NO!" Trudly exclaimed.

"Looks like you guys lose." Jovi said as she recalled her kadabra and jigglypuff. Plipli and Mimi ran back to her and stood by her side. Trudly growled and recalled his pineco.

"Great, now what do we tell the boss?" Folly asked.

"I'm not telling him this time, you tell him." Trudly shouted back. Before Folly could shout back, some very corny music began to play. It sounded very much like the bananas in pyjamas theme, which Jovi had watched when she was much younger. Only that the music was much more cheesy.

"Oh boys…" A voice from nearby called.

"Uh-oh." Trudly muttered.

* * *

Everybody turned to look at where the music and the voice was coming from. They saw a weird person dancing backwards towards them. He was wearing a purple and yellow dancing suit and a gold necklace. His hair was extremely bizarre; it looked like a poké ball. Jovi had to cover her mouth to hide her sniggering at the sight. The person danced to Trudly and Folly and stopped, still dancing to the music.

"Ok boys, did you get some pokémon?" The person asked.

"Boss, that girl there has some good pokémon, but she defeated us." Folly replied.

"Girl? Stop the music!" The music suddenly stopped and the figure turned to face Jovi. He was still dancing to the non-existant music.

"Woah, super freak!" Jovi exclaimed.

"Hmm, you smell of powerful pokémon little girl."

"Who are you?"

"Apologies. The name's Miror B, best dancer in Orre and leader of team Miror B."

"Right, and what in the heckare youdoing?"

"We were going to try and take your pokémon, but now I'm going to ask if you want to help us."

"Why? What is your objective?"

"We'll be owning all pokémon in the world. That is our grand objective."

"In which case, I won't help you."

"I had a feeling that you would say that. You have the smell of an enemy. So now I cannot let you get past."

"You're freaking me out."

"I consider that an insult. For that you must pay. Start the music!" The music suddenly started up again. Miror B took two poké balls from his dance outfit and threw them into play. They opened up to reveal two lombre's. They also began to dance to the music.

"Plipli, Mimi, you're up." Jovi said. Plipli and Squealed and stepped into the battlefield. They both looked at their dancing adversaries. They were equally confused by the whole display.

"Don't let the weirdness fool you. Mimi, use helping hand. Plipli, use spark!" Mimi grabbed Plipli's hand and gave her a charge up. Plipli's body then became electrified and she ran straight into one of the lombre's. The lombre that she hit staggered heavily and suffered from paralysis. It ceased dancing but was able to stay standing.

"Lombre A, time for the rain dance!" Miror B instructed. The lombre that was not paralysed raised its hands into the air and summoned a rainstorm over the battlefield. It should've put out the fire as well, but the rain seemed to be bouncing off an invisible field. Nobody appeared to notice this though.

"Lombre B, try water gun!" Miror B instructed. The lombre that had been hit by Plipli lurched forward but before it could attack, succumbed to paralysis. It found itself unable to move at all.

"Plipli, Mimi, use quick attack on the paralysed lombre.

"Lombre A, use water gun!" Miror B. instructed. The lombre tried to fire its water gun attack. A stream of water came towards Plipli, but Plipli leapt out of the way of the attack just in time. Plipli and Mimi then charged into the paralysed lombre at full speed, knocking it to the floor. It tried to get back up but failed and collapsed. Miror B groaned and recalled it.

"Ok then lassie, you asked for it. Sentret, go!" Miror B. shouted as he threw another poké ball into the field. As soon as it came out, the Sentret stood up on its tail and growled nastily. Before anything else could happen, the aura catcher responded. Jovi looked at the sentret and saw a black aura through the aura catcher.

"A shadow pokémon."

* * *

Now that there was a shadow pokémon in play, things had taken a turn. Jovi knew the protocol for these pokémon well by now, but she didn't know what sentret could do. She decided to take out the lombre before she went for the sentret.

"Mimi, helping hand. Plipli, use spark on the lombre!" Jovi instructed. Mimi held Plipli's hand and powered her up. Plipli's body began to spark with electricity and she charged straight at the lombre.

"Lombre A, use astonish!" Miror B instructed. The lombre pulled a shocking face but Plipli didn't notice the face. She collided with the lombre and seemed to score a critical hit, as the lombre fainted instantly. Miror B growled and recalled the lombre.

"Sentret, use shadow blitz!" Miror B instructed. The sentret charged full body into Mimi. Mimi suffered the hit and nearly fell to the ground, but Plipli caught him.

"Mimi, are you ok?" Jovi asked. Mimi looked up and gave a weak squeak. Plipli kept hold of Mimi, just to be sure that he could stand.

"Mimi, why don't you take a rest?" Jovi said. Mimi squeaked and walked away to sit down. Jovi took out one of her other poké balls.

"Go jigglypuff!" Jovi shouted as she threw the ball. As soon as it came out, jigglypuff growled evilly. It glared at the sentret while it was growling.

"Jigglypuff, use shadow song!" Jovi instructed. Jigglypuff took a breath and sang its evil song. The sentret was sent fast asleep immediately.

"Sentret!" Miror B shouted.

"Plipli, quick attack!" Plipli rushed at the sentret and smacked it. The sentret was wounded but somehow stayed asleep.

"Sentret, can you hear me?" This time, sentret woke up and glared at jigglypuff. Jovi was busy loading the snag machine, ready to snag the sentret.

"Jigglypuff, use shadow song!" Jigglypuff used its evil song and sent sentret back to sleep. Before Miror B could do anything, Jovi threw the converted poké ball that was in the snag machine at the sentret. The ball made contact and pulled sentret inside. Everybody held their breath, even though the cheesy music was still playing, as the ball rocked from side to side. Eventually though, the ball locked and disappeared, sending sentret to Jovi's storage system. At that point, the rain suddenly stopped.

"Got ya." Jovi exclaimed.

"Ohh, how dare you, how dare you, how dare you! Next time we meet, I shall kick you about with my elegant dance steps!" Miror B shouted.

"Uh-oh, she beat the boss." Folly mumbled.

"Folks, let's go. Escape!" Miror B, Trudly and Folly suddenly turned tail and ran from the scene at top speed, dropping about 3000 in prize money. Jovi picked up the prize money and then looked down at jigglypuff, Plipli and Mimi, who had wondered back to Mimi.

"I'm proud of all of you. You did a great job." Jovi said. She petted Plipli and Mimi. She went to pet jigglypuff but it spat at her. Jovi sighed and recalled it into its poké ball. She continued to pet her two prized pokémon.

"Right, now we can get back to sleep. And hope we don't meet that freak again." Plipli and Mimi squeaked joyously. Jovi placed her bag on the end of her sleeping bag and climbed inside.

"Plipli, can you extinguish the fire again?" Jovi asked. Plipli squeaked and extinguished the fire with a water pulse attack. Plipli and Mimi then climbed onto Jovi's bag and soon fell asleep. Jovi rested her head and fell asleep again. The battle had worn her out a little. She hadn't noticed the figure on the Mt. Battle building. Its eyes had been glowing but they suddenly stopped glowing. The figure then stayed still and watched as Jovi slept.


	13. Chamber results

**Chamber results**

Jovi was able to sleep peacefully for the rest of the night without any interruptions. By the time she had woken up, the figure on the Mt. Battle building had disappeared, without Jovi even realising that it had been there at all. She sat up in her sleeping bag and looked at Plipli and Mimi. The two had fully recovered from their battle last night and were sitting up looking at her. The snag machine was still present, much to Jovi's relief. She reached into her bag and pulled out some food for herself and her pokémon. She was nervous about letting her shadow pokémon out but they had to eat. She pulled out the poké balls containing the shadow pokémon and let them out. All of them growled and looked around. Plipli and Mimi flashed electricity to try and keep then quiet. This worked for all but pikachu, who just sparked electricity as well. Jovi heard the electricity crackle while she was preparing the food.

"Everyone, calm down!" Jovi snapped. All of the shadow pokémon growled but quietened down when they noticed that Jovi had some pokémon food. She carefully placed a bowl in front of each of her pokémon and filled it with pokémon food. The shadow pokémon stopped being vicious and began eating. Plipli and Mimi began eating from their bowls, giving Jovi some breathing some space. She took out a BLT sandwich from her bag and pulled out her diary. She turned to the previous night's entry. She took a bite from her sandwich and began writing an additional entry.

"Additional. During the night, I was disturbed by some rogues called Trudly and Folly. They were after my pokémon, but I easily fought them off. It was then that I was confronted by their leader, Miror B. I battled him and was able to snag his shadow sentret. After that little incident, I was able to get back to sleep." After writing this additional note, Jovi closed up her diary and finished her sandwich. When she finished, she took out a bottle of water and some more bowls. She filled these bowls with water and gave them to her pokémon before drinking some herself.

"I need to stock up on supplies in a minute." Jovi thought to herself. She looked at her pokémon. They were all still eating and drinking. She just sighed and looked at them.

"Five more minutes guys." Jovi aid. The pokémon ignored her and continued eating. Jovi started looking into the sky. She began to wonder if her journey would take any more mad twists and turns like the previous night. For on thing, there were still a lot of unanswered questions. For instance, what was this XD150 that Breagull had spoken off? She had already made the connection that it must have been the XD150, whatever it was, that had attacked the train. She still had no idea of what it could be. So far, she had no idea of what it looked like, only that it seemed to have thin arms and could change shape. This was unlike any pokémon that she had come across before. For all she knew, it may be an undiscovered pokémon. Her thoughts were interrupted by a growling. She looked and saw that her shadow pokémon had finished their food and water. They were now looking at Plipli and Mimi's food. They were all growling. Trying to intimidate the two pokémon. Plipli and Mimi were letting loose a little bit of electricity, but this wasn't holding the shadow's back. Jovi sighed and took out their poké balls.

"Ok guys, take it easy." Jovi said sternly, recalling her shadow pokémon before they could start trouble. This allowed Plipli and Mimi to finish off their food and gave Jovi a chance to pick up the bowls used by her shadow pokémon. When she had picked up the last of the bowls, her PDA beeped. She immediately opened it up and it turned to the shadow monitor. The squirtle that had been left in the purify chamber was now ready to be purified. She needed to return to the lab to purify it. This was perfect, as it meant that she could also stop off at Agate to stock up on supplies on the way and report what had happened to Lily and Krane. She then heard a squeak. Plipli and Mimi had finished their food. Jovi picked up their bowls and put them in her bag. She then began packing up her sleeping bag while Plipli and Mimi had a looked around. Their attention was suddenly drawn to a figure near the Mt. Battle building. They couldn't see it very clearly but saw it fly away as soon as it noticed them. Jovi didn't notice the figure, as she was busy packing. She did notice Plipli and Mimi looking in that direction.

"Is everything ok guys?" Jovi asked. Plipli and Mimi looked at her and began squeaking and squealing, indicating that they had seen something.

"It's probably nothing you two. Come on, we need to head back to the lab." Jovi recalled Plipli and Mimi into their poké balls once she had said this. She then gathered everything up and climbed onto her scooter.

"This is a bit of a detour." Jovi muttered to herself.

* * *

After a brief stop in Agate village to stock up on poké balls, including a few great balls, Jovi returned to the lab. The first place she went to when she arrived was the purify chamber. One of the assistants that was in the room saw Jovi enter the room. She looked at Jovi and smiled.

"Ah Jovi, we're ready to do a purification ceremony." The assistant said.

"Ok, how would I do that?" Jovi asked.

"If you step into the hologram display, touch the shadow pokémon and it will happen automatically." Jovi nodded and stepped into the hologram disc. She was then surrounded by the holograms that she had seen before. The squirtle hologram was flashing white. Jovi touched this hologram and watched in amazement as the whole area turned green. A pulse of energy went around the edge of the area and gathered at a point above the shadow squirtle. This energy then dropped down onto the squirtle. Jovi then watched as the remaining darkness inside squirtle was removed and disappeared. Squirtle was now back to normal. Before anything else happened, a message appeared in front of her. The message said that squirtle had relearned tackle, tail whip, hydro cannon and iron defence.

"Saves trial and error in finding out its moves." Jovi thought to herself. She nicknamed the squirtle Squirty in her head before it was transferred to her PC. The holograms then disappeared from her view.

"How are things going Jovi?" A voice from behind asked. Jovi turned around to see Krane and Lily in the room.

"All going well. I've caught 11 shadow pokémon and purified 4." Jovi replied.

"That's great work."

"But there is trouble; there is another XD class shadow pokémon."

"I feared as much. But how do you know?"

"A cipher admin I defeated in agate mentioned it. He called it the XD150. No doubt it was the XD150 that attacked that train." Krane had a think for a moment before speaking again.

"The 150th pokémon was mewtwo, so a shadow mewtwo is a possible."

"What is a mewtwo?"

"A pokémon cloned from the genetic structure of the pokémon mew. It was captured some time ago by a trainer but it was reported to have escaped during an accident."

"How long ago was this accident?"

"Just after the first shadow incident."

"But can mewtwo shape-shift?"

"I don't think so."

"Then what could it be?"

"The problem is that we have no clues as to its identity other than that it is a shape shifter, which isn't a unique pokémon skill."

"I'll ask Vander when I see him."

"You're going to Mt. battle?" Lily asked.

"Eagun told me that Vander had seen something a couple of days ago. I'm going to talk to him and find out what he saw."

"Ok, but be careful."

"Just one more thing before I go." Jovi turned back to the purify chamber and accessed the holograms again. She then used the holograms to create a new set. The new set had Bulby looking at Ziggy, Ziggy looking at Chauncer, Chauncer looking at Squirty.

"Not perfect but it'll do for the moment." Jovi thought to herself before putting rattata and sentret in the two sets. When she finished, Krane was smiling.

"You've gotten the hang of the purify chamber haven't you?" Krane said.

"Indeed I have. I'd better go." Jovi left the room and then left the lab to head off to Mt. battle.

"Be careful Jovi!" Lily called out as Jovi left the lab on her scooter.

* * *

When Jovi arrived back at Mt. battle, there was an obvious difference. There was absolutely nobody around in the front garden. This was a surprise as Jovi had been told that it was always busy. Her nerves began to tingle nervously. There was a strange air around the place, not the kind of air you'd expect from a place of training. She drew a poké ball and walk towards the main entrance cautiously. She was passing a small tree in the garden when she was jumped by a female cipher peon. She could tell that it was a cipher peon because of the uniform.

"Sorry sweetie, Mt. battle is temporary closed." The peon said. Jovi was shocked. Cipher had reached the facility while she was gone. Jovi now had a reason for being here. She would have to drive cipher away by whatever means necessary. It was clear to her that whatever Vander had seen, they didn't want anybody knowing about, so they had come to keep Vander quiet.

"I have to get through. Don't make me use force." Jovi said bravely.

"Wow. You've got guts to stand up to cipher. Allow me, Hannah, to show you your mistake to challenge us." Hannah threw two poké balls in front of her. They opened up to reveal a pidgey and a spearow.

"A battle, fine. Kadabra, jigglypuff, go!" Jovi threw the poké balls containing jigglypuff and kadabra onto the field. When they came out, the two looked at their two flying adversaries and sneered menacingly.

"Pidgey, gust!" Hannah ordered. The pidgey whipped up a small tornado and hurled it at jigglypuff. Jigglypuff was caught in the attack and spun around. It didn't too much damage and jigglypuff was able to recover easily

"Spearow, peck!" Hannah instructed again. Spearow flew through the sky and pecked kadabra on the head, causing very little damage.

"Jigglypuff, shadow song!" Jovi instructed. Jigglypuff sang its evil song and sent both the opponents to sleep.

"Uh-oh." Hannah mumbled.

"Kadabra, shadow mind!" Kadabra's eyes glowed dark and lifted the two sleeping pokémon into the air. The two then hit each other in the air and were then thrown into the side of the building. Neither of them could move after that so Hannah recalled them. She then drew out a third poké ball.

"Go hoothoot!" The poké ball opened and revealed a hoothoot. It began hopping around while glaring at everything. Before Jovi could do anything, the aura catcher reacted. The hoothoot was a shadow pokémon. Jovi knew what she had to do now.

"Kadabra, shadow rush!" Kadabra charge, full body, into the hoothoot and knocked it backwards quite a distance. It hopped back onto its feet and hopped back into battle.

"Hoothoot, shadow down!" Hannah shouted. Hoothoot released puffs of shadowy down, which clung to kadabra and jigglypuff.

"Jigglypuff, shadow song!" Jigglypuff then sang its evil song and sent the hoothoot into slumber land.

"Oh no!" Hannah exclaimed. Jovi had already loaded the snag machine with a newly bought poké ball.

"Hoothoot is mine!" Jovi said as she threw the ball. The ball made contact and pulled hoothoot inside. After a few seconds of rocking, the ball stopped and disappeared.

"Gotchya!" Jovi exclaimed. Hannah turned tail and ran, dropping about 300 in prize money.

"Kadabra, jigglypuff, return." Jovi recalled her pokémon and picked up the prize money. She could now enter Mt. battle and fine out what was going on.


	14. Climbing Mt Battle

**Climbing Mt. Battle**

The first room that Jovi entered was the reception room. This room appeared completely deserted. There was absolutely nobody around within visible sight. The pokémon healing machine was still active but there was nobody to operate it. It didn't matter at the moment, as her pokémon didn't need that much healing. She would have to remember it just in case the worst happened though. The door leading to where the Mt. Battle challenge took place was open. Jovi was curious as to what the challenge area looked like. She expected it to be spectacular though, but this wasn't a pleasure trip. She began to walk to the entrance. She stopped when she heard a noise though. The noise was a thump coming from behind the reception counter near the door. Jovi immediately figured out that there might be a cipher peon nearby. She drew two poké balls and looked around.

"Come out, whoever you are!" Jovi said sternly. To her surprise, there was a response. It came from the counter where the pokémon healing machine was. It was the nurse lady. She had been hiding behind the counter.

"Who are you?" The lady asked very nervously. Jovi put her poké balls away and walked over to the lady.

"My name's Jovi. I'm from the pokémon HQ lab."

"Jovi? Do you know a lad called Michael?" Jovi's heart skipped a beat when she heard her brother's name.

"He's my brother."

"Where is he?"

"Wish I knew. He's off on a journey."

"Have you come to save us?"

"What's happened?"

"Cipher has attacked. I think they're after Vander."

"Eagun told me that he saw something. They must want to keep him quiet."

"Are you going to save us?"

"I'll do my very best."

"Then allow me to heal your pokémon."

"No you don't!" A voice from behind them said. Jovi turned around and saw a cipher peon behind her. This peon was a male, but still wore the cipher uniform.

"You are not going to stop us lady." The peon scolded.

"Watch me!" Jovi shouted, drawing two poké balls.

"Bring it on. The great Bandon will take you down!" Bandon threw two poké balls towards Jovi. They opened to reveal a mankey and a machop.

"Ekans, pikachu, go!" Jovi threw the poké balls containing ekans and pikachu. When the two came out, they began growling at their opponents. The mankey was intimidated a little but the machop sneered back and got into a fighting position. Jovi soon found out why. The aura catcher responded. The machop was a shadow pokémon. Jovi did expect this, based on the partial list she had found. She knew she had to take it away from Bandon no matter what.

"Pikachu, shadow blitz the mankey!" Jovi instructed. Pikachu responded by charging straight into mankey. The attack found its mark and heavily hurt the mankey, not knocking it out though.

"Mankey, leer attack!" Bandon shouted. Mankey came back by casting a frightening leer at ekans and pikachu. The two shuddered but they seemed to be ok.

"Machop, shadow blitz!" Bandon then instructed. The machop suddenly turned aggressive and charged, directly hitting pikachu. The attack found its mark and caused pikachu to stagger. As it did, a small spark of electricity went from its cheeks and into the machop. It was pikachu's static ability. The machop was suddenly paralysed.

"Ekans, shadow wave!" Jovi instructed. Ekans fired the shadow wave attack at both machop and mankey. The mankey couldn't take the hit and fainted. The machop was still fighting though. It had shrugged off the attack easily. Bandon sighed and recalled his defeated mankey.

"Pikachu, use shadow blitz quickly!" Pikachu quickly charged into the machop. Again, machop shrugged off the attack but was clearly getting exhausted. Jovi began discretely loading her snag machine ready to make the capture.

"Machop, shadow chop!" Bandon shouted. The machop raised its hand. The shadowy aura around the hand intensified. It then jumped at pikachu and chopped heavily. Pikachu was unable to take the hit and fainted on the spot. Jovi immediately figured out. She remembered about the guts ability and realised that machop had it. This explained the sudden rise in power. Plus the attack seemed to score a critical hit. Jovi recalled pikachu with a sigh. The snag machine was now ready. She reached one of her other poké ball like she was going to send out another pokémon.

"Whatever you send out, I'll obliterate it." Bandon proclaimed proudly. Jovi then suddenly threw the poké ball that she had loaded into the snag machine.

"Psyche!" Jovi called out as she threw the ball. Before Bandon could react, the ball had hit machop and pulled it inside. Bandon watched in horror while Jovi watched in anticipation as the ball rocked from side to side. Eventually though, the ball locked and teleported to Jovi's storage system. Bandon just ran, dropping 150 in prize money. Jovi picked up this money and recalled her ekans.

"Wow, you're good." The nurse lady said. She had watched the whole battle and was obviously very impressed.

"Thanks." Jovi replied.

"If you're going on ahead, you should let me heal your pokémon. There is a cipher admin here as well."

"Another admin?"

"A lady. I think her name is Claire."

"Ok, any idea of what she uses?"

"No idea. I never saw her pokémon."

"Ok." Jovi handed her poké balls to the nurse lady and she used the healing machine to restore them to full health.

"Good luck." The nurse said as she handed Jovi her poké balls.

"Thanks." Jovi replied. She took the poké balls and ran through the door that lead to the challenge area.

* * *

As soon as Jovi saw the platforms where the training took place, she was awestruck. She had heard stories about Mt. Battle but she had never seen the training area until now. She was also a little nervous, as there were on barriers between the edge of the platforms and a very long drop. She couldn't see the propellers underneath the platforms that kept them airborne. She didn't have time to gawk though; she needed to find Vander before anything happened to him, though she had a feeling that she might be too late. Especially since she could see three cipher peons on the platforms. She began to run along the platforms and came across the first cipher peon on zone 3.

"Sorry young girl, training's cancelled for today." The peon said.

"I'm here for some emergency training." Jovi lied. The cipher peon smirked.

"Ok then, allow me, bugging wall Elvis, to give you some special training." Elvis threw two poké balls onto the field. Jovi was rather disappointed at what came out of them, two caterpies. Jovi sighed to herself and drew put two poké balls.

"This won't take long. Plipli, Mimi, go for it!" Jovi said as she threw the poké balls. As soon as the two pokémon came out, they both looked at the caterpies. It did give Jovi an idea though. Perhaps she could take this opportunity to try and teach Mimi spark, just like Plipli could.

"Plipli, use your spark attack!" Jovi instructed. Plipli began to charge up her spark attack.

"Mimi, watch what Plipli does. You can learn something from her." Jovi added. Mimi nodded and watched Plipli use her spark attack against one of the caterpies. The caterpie she hit fainted instantly from the attack.

"Mimi, see if you can do that." Mimi tried to mimic what Plipli had just done. He successfully electrified his body and then charged into the other caterpie. He had successfully performed the spark attack. Like the other caterpie, the one Mimi hit also fainted instantly. Neither of them could withstand Plipli and Mimi's power. Elvis growled and recalled his two caterpies.

"I'm not finished yet. Go metapod!" Elvis shouted, throwing one more poké ball. The metapod that came out just stared at Plipli and Mimi. Jovi thought she heard a grown from the metapod. At first she couldn't believe it, until the aura catcher responded. The metapod was a shadow pokémon.

"Plipli, Mimi, use quick attack both of you!" Jovi instructed. Both pokémon began rushing towards the shadow metapod. Plipli was ahead of Mimi. Just before Plipli made contact though…

"Shadow guard!" Elvis instructed. The metapod's eye glowed black and a shadowy barrier formed in front of the metapod. Plipli just bounced off the barrier. The barrier had faded by the time Mimi had reached the metapod. As a result, Mimi's attack was successful, but it didn't seem to do much damage. Plipli got back to her feet. She seemed unaffected by her impact with the shadowy wall that metapod had produced.

"Plipli, are you ok?" Plipli looked up at Jovi and nodded.

"Metapod, shadow defence!" The metapod's body briefly became shrouded in a stronger shadowy aura but this aura soon faded. The metapod looked as though it had gained a bit of resistance to attacks from its attack. Jovi had figured out that metapod was excellent at defence but couldn't attack. She had also noticed a hole in the defence.

"Plipli, Mimi, use spark both of you." Plipli and Mimi both began charging up their spark attack. Plipli dashed at the metapod first.

"Shadow guard!" Metapod created another shadowy barrier in front of itself.

"Plipli stop!" At Jovi's instruction, Plipli stopped right in front of the shadowy barrier. All the electricity around her dissipated. The barrier then suddenly disappeared, just before Mimi arrived. As a result, Mimi's spark attack made contact, did heavy damage and paralysed the metapod.

"No! You found the hole in the defence!" Elvis shouted. Jovi quickly loaded the snag machine while she had an opening.

"You're mine!" Jovi threw the converted poké ball as soon as it was ready. The ball found its mark and pulled metapod inside. Elvis couldn't speak. All he could do was watch. Eventually though, metapod was captures ad the poké ball teleported to Jovi's storage system. Elvis just fled, dropping 70 in prize money. Jovi knelt down and petted Plipli and Mimi.

"Both of you were fantastic. And congratulations Mimi for learning spark. Now we need to go on." Jovi recalled her pokémon, picked up the prize money and continued up the platforms.

* * *

The next cipher peon was on the 6th zone. This admin was also a male. Jovi could really see no difference between the male cipher peons because of the uniforms. Jovi approached the peon cautiously and readied two poké balls, knowing that she would have to fight him. The peon noticed Jovi and looked directly at her.

"What was Elvis doing? Do I have to do everything for him?" the peon said.

"Just let me through and it will be much easier for both of us." Jovi said sternly. The peon then noticed the snag machine on Jovi's arm.

"Hey, you're the kid who's taking the fight to Cipher. This is perfect. I will defeat you here and now. Fall to the toxic bug Bruce!" Bruce then threw two poké balls towards Jovi. When they opened, Jovi was, again, disappointed. This time it was two weedles. Jovi sighed and threw the poké balls she had gotten ready.

"Ekans, jigglypuff, do it!" The poké balls that Jovi threw opened to reveal ekans and jigglypuff. Both the pokémon growled aggressively at the two weedles.

"Jigglypuff, shadow song!" Jovi instructed. Jigglypuff sang its dark song, sending both weedles to sleep.

"Uh-oh." Bruce mumbled.

"Ekans, shadow wave!" Ekans fired its shadow wave attack at both the weedles. This attack was too strong for them to take and they fainted instantly. Bruce groaned and recalled his two weedles. He then took out another poké ball.

"Kakuna, get them!" Bruce shouted. The Kakuna that came out stayed motionless, but it seemed to be able to growl at ekans and jigglypuff. Jovi's aura catcher reacted when it came out. The Kakuna was a shadow pokémon. Jovi suspected that it would have similar attacks to the shadow metapod. She wasn't about to let it use those attacks though.

"Jigglypuff, shadow song!" Jigglypuff sang its dark song and sent Kakuna to sleep immediately. But since Kakuna was a shadow pokémon, it would be resistant to ekans' shadow wave attack.

"Ekans, have you regained any attacks yet?" Jovi asked. Ekans responded by slithering up to Kakuna. Once it reached the Kakuna, it wrapped its body around it. Jovi immediately recognised the attack.

"Bind, nice. It will do." Jovi thought to herself.

"Stop that!" Bruce shouted.

"No way. Jigglypuff, shadow blitz!" Jigglypuff charged at Kakuna, avoiding ekans' body, and collided with Kakuna. This did little damage and it was still sleeping. Jovi decided to take a gamble and began loading the snag machine. As soon as it was ready, she prepared to throw the converted ball.

"What you are doing is wrong. Why can't you see that?" Jovi asked before throwing the ball. Ekans leapt away from Kakuna before the ball hit. Bruce looked stunned when Kakuna was dragged inside the poké ball. Jovi waited with anticipation and prayed that Kakuna was weak enough. To Jovi's relief, the poké ball locked and teleported away. Bruce fled, dropping 70 in prize money. Jovi recalled her pokémon, picked up the prize money and raced onwards.

A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating this. I had other commitments and writer's block. I still haven't abandoned it but don't expect a quick finish.


	15. The second admin

**The second admin**

When Jovi reached the 10th zone, she found a total of three people. One of them was Vander. Jovi recognised him from a picture she had seen before, though she couldn't remember where from. The second was a standard Cipher peon. The third person was a lady dressed in jet black, much like a secret agent. She had flowing gold hair, but Jovi couldn't see her other features. She had a belt with some poké balls around her waist. Jovi's logic told her that this was the Claire that the nurse had spoken of. Jovi approached slowly so she could hear what was going on.

"Vander, why do you snoop in our matters?" Claire asked, mock sweetly.

"You were supposed to have been disbanded three years ago!" Vander shouted.

"True, but we've gotten back together again."

"What are you hiding this time?"

"That's the point. You saw us unloading that train in the forest didn't you?"

"And what if I did?"

"We can't have you blabbering about what happened. You'd ruin us very quickly."

"That's the point." Jovi just continued to listen to the discussion with intrigue. It was obvious now that Cipher had used the XD150 to steal the train and take it somewhere. Something must have gone wrong and the train had ended up in the forest, just like the S.S. Libra had ended up in the desert. She crept a little bit closer to try and hear a little bit better but ended up tripping on a small stone. She was able to catch herself before she hurt herself, but the snag machine hit the metal flooring. The snag machine wasn't damaged, but the resulting clang got everybody's attention. Claire and the cipher peon were both looking at Jovi with harsh intent.

"An eavesdropper? We can't have that." Claire said, mock sweetly. Jovi climbed to her feet and looked at Claire.

"Let Vander go." Jovi scolded.

"Oh my, I can't do that. He knows too much." Jovi drew a couple of poké balls and prepared to battle. Claire just smirked.

"Gordon, take care of this girl for me will you?" Claire instructed.

"Yes ma'am." Gordon replied. He drew out two poké balls and stepped on a small switch behind him, revealing a small tank of water on the platform.

"Feebas, tentacool, time to battle!" Gordon shouted, throwing the poké balls towards the water. The poké balls opened and revealed a Feebas and a tentacool. The Feebas began swimming around the tank and leaping out of the water. The tentacool just popped slightly above the water and sounded like it was sneering.

"Plipli, Mimi, let's do this quickly!" Jovi shouted, throwing the two poké balls she had in her hand. As soon as they came out, Plipli and Mimi looked into the water and at their two opponents. Jovi was about to issue a command when the aura catcher responded. She looked at her two opponents. The tentacool was a shadow pokémon.

"That throws a easy win out of the window." Jovi muttered to herself. She had thought up a plan of electrifying the water as soon as the water was revealed but now se knew there was a shadow pokémon, that tactic was out of the question, as the tentacool would be knocked out.

"Mimi, quick attack the tentacool!" Jovi instructed. Mimi dashed at the tentacool at high speed, hit the jellyfish pokémon and then jumped back into land safely. The tentacool looked staggered but it soon recovered.

"Plipli, follow up with another quick attack!" Jovi instructed. Plipli did the same thing that Mimi had done, weakening the tentacool even more. Gordon was beginning to panic. His shadow pokémon was very weak and he was at a type disadvantage.

"Tentacool, shadow wave!" Gordon shouted. The tentacool launched a shadow wave attack at Plipli and Mimi. The attack hit both pokémon and knocked them to the floor, but they quickly got back up. Jovi was loading the snag machine, waiting for her opportunity.

"Feebas, tackle attack!" Gordon shouted. The Feebas leapt out of the water in an attempt to use its tackle attack, but it missed completely and landed on the floor, where it was helpless. Jovi couldn't help but snigger at Gordon's misfortune as she looked at the Feebas flopping around.

"Plipli, use spark on the Feebas!" Jovi instructed. Plipli charged its body and launched its spark attack at the helpless Feebas. The attack connected and knocked it out completely, also knocking it into the water. The body was still slightly electrified and as a result, the tentacool took a small shock as well. This was the chance Jovi was waiting for.

"You're mine!" Jovi shouted as she threw the poké ball that the snag machine had converted. The ball hit the tentacool dead on and pulled it inside. Gordon didn't notice because he was recalling his Feebas. By the time he had realised, the poké ball had locked and been transported to Jovi's storage system.

* * *

Claire had watched the whole battle with intrigue. When she saw Jovi snag the shadow tentacool, she realised what was going on. She was unable to stop Gordon from running away from the scene. She stepped on the button that Gordon had stepped on and closed up the water.

"So you're the girl who's challenging cipher. I'm sorry, but I can't let you go any further than you already have." Claire said.

"I'm telling you, leave Vander alone." Jovi said. Claire pulled out two poké balls.

"Only if you can defeat me in a battle."

"Fine then. I accept your challenge." Claire smirked. She thought that she would have this battle easily.

"This won't take very long. Geodude, bonsly, go!" Claire threw the poké balls as she said this. The poké balls opened and revealed a geodude and a bonsly. Jovi had seen a bonsly in a picture before. Her brother had shown her the picture of bonsly he received for winning the bonsly bingo card. Jovi smirked to herself. Claire obviously thought that she would have the advantage. She was in for a big surprise. Jovi knew enough to know that the geodude was the biggest danger, since it was part ground and immune to electricity. Firstly, she looked at both pokémon. The aura catcher didn't respond so she could tell that they weren't shadow pokémon.

"Plipli, use water pulse on geodude!" Jovi instructed. Plipli launched the attack immediately. The attack hit and knocked out the geodude instantly. Claire was so shocked that she couldn't speak for a moment. She recalled her fainted geodude and looked at Jovi.

"How can your plusle use water pulse?" Claire asked.

"Not telling." Jovi replied.

"It doesn't matter. Go aron!" The poké ball opened up and revealed an aron. It looked around before looking intently at Plipli and Mimi. This one wasn't a shadow either, so Jovi began to suspect that Claire was saving her shadow until last, like Breagull did. "Mimi, use spark on bonsly!" Jovi instructed. Mimi charged up his body and launched its spark attack at the bonsly. The attack connected and did a fair amount of damage, not enough to knock the bonsly out though.

"Bonsly, rock slide!" Claire shouted. The bonsly suddenly generated a heap of boulders and hurled them towards Plipli and Mimi. Mimi was able to evade the attack but Plipli was caught by one of the boulders and knocked to the floor. Plipli was able to stand up again, though it did look dazed.

"Plipli, are you ok?" Jovi asked. Plipli squeaked in response, telling her that she was ok.

"Great, use spark on that bonsly!" Plipli launched her spark attack and hit the bonsly. It took another hit but it still wasn't down.

"Mimi, use water pulse on aron!" Mimi looked at the aron and fired a water pulse attack right at aron. The aron wasn't strong enough to take the hit and fainted instantly. Claire sighed and recalled it. She then pulled out another poké ball.

"Go, nosepass!" The poké ball opened and revealed the nosepass. As soon as it appeared, it began spinning in a circle, finally stopping to look at Plipli and Mimi. This pokémon wasn't a shadow either.

"Nosepass, use block on Plipli! Bonsly, use block on Mimi!" Claire shouted. Both bonsly and nosepass moved in between Jovi and her Plipli and Mimi. The positioning of them made recalling her pokémon impossible. Jovi had already recognised the nosepass as a danger, so she had to get rid of it quickly.

"Plipli, Mimi, both of you use water pulse on nosepass." Jovi shouted. Both pokémon aimed at nosepass and fired their water pulse attack. Amazingly, the nosepass was able to survive these attacks, but it began spinning wildly. This meant one thing; the attacks had confused it.

"Bonsly, rock slide!" Claire shouted. The bonsly fired another rock slide at Plipli and Mimi. This time, both of them were hit and knocked to the floor.

"Plipli, Mimi, are you ok?" Jovi asked. They were both ok but they were also getting worn out. They hadn't had chance to heal after their battle with Gordon.

"Nosepass, thunder wave!" Claire shouted. The nosepass was still spinning but it eventually stopped. It was able to bypass its confusion and fire a weak jolt of electricity at Plipli. The electricity connected and paralysed Plipli.

"Mimi, use water pulse!" Jovi shouted. Mimi quickly fired his water pulse at bonsly. The attack hit and the bonsly finally fainted. Claire reached over and recalled it.

"Hmm, I underestimated you." Claire muttered.

"Are you going to give up?" Jovi asked. Claire smirked and drew out another poké ball.

"This battle has only just begun. Go onix!" Claire threw the poké ball and the onix came out. As soon as it did, it released a bellowing roar. Plipli and Mimi squealed and grabbed hold of each other from the roar. The platform they were battling on was still able to support the weight of the onix. The onix looked around and roared again, terrifying Plipli and Mimi even more. Plipli was now finding it very difficult to move from paralysis.

"Great, things couldn't get…" Jovi began to say but before she could finish her sentence, things took a turn for the worse. Her aura catcher responded.

The onix was a shadow pokémon.


	16. A tough shadow

**A tough shadow**

The onix that Cipher Admin Claire had just sent out was a shadow pokémon, just as Jovi's aura catcher had told her. She was silently cursing her luck. Plipli and Mimi were worn out, with Plipli suffering from paralysis from nosepass' thunder wave attack. It had also been trapped in play by the same nosepass. Mimi could be recalled, but Jovi knew that the two got a little fraught if they weren't battling together, so recalling Mimi wouldn't be a good idea. In her mind, Jovi came up with a plan. If she could defeat the nosepass quickly, she could recall both her pokémon. Claire was just standing behind the onix with a sinister smile on her face. She had a facial expression that suggested overconfidence. Her onix was still roaring very powerfully. Jovi was incredibly nervous, even though she had the means to defeat the onix and capture it. She took a deep breath and put her plan into action.

"Plipli, helping hand. Mimi, use water pulse on nosepass!" Jovi shouted. Plipli was just able to get around her paralysis and grabbed hold of Mimi. Mimi then launched his water pulse attack at nosepass. The attack hit perfectly but it was still standing, but only barely. It had begun spinning again, showing that it was still suffering from confusion

"Nosepass, use rock slide!" Claire shouted. Her nosepass just continued spinning. Suddenly, it punched itself in the head out of confusion, and knocked itself out. Jovi couldn't help but smirk at this, even though the shadow onix was still active. Claire slapped her forehead in frustration and then recalled her nosepass. She had no pokémon left other than her shadow onix, but she still thought that this was going to be more than enough to snatch her the win. She spotted Jovi sniggering and began to get enraged.

"Ok hero, laugh this off. Onix, shadow tremor!" The shadowy aura around onix rose to a great pitch. The onix raised its tail into the air and then slammed it into the ground with tremendous force. The result was what felt like an earthquake. Jovi was having difficulty keeping her feet but Claire was having no difficulty. The platform they were on was holding well so far, but Jovi didn't know how much longer it would hold. Plipli and Mimi could not keep their feet at all during the attack. They both fell to the floor heavily and began to shake due to the ongoing tremor. Through the aura catcher, Jovi was able to see shadowy tremor lines originating from where the onix had struck the platform. Eventually, the tremor subsided. The first thing Jovi saw was Plipli and Mimi lying on the platform.

"Plipli, Mimi, are you ok?" Both pokémon tried to climb back to their feet but promptly fell back onto the ground. Claire smirked; she could tell that Plipli and Mimi had no more energy to battle. Jovi had realised this as well, so she recalled them both.

"You both did a great job. Have a good long rest." Jovi said into the poké balls. She then put them away and pulled out another.

"Come on. Use two pokémon, I dare you." Claire challenged. Jovi sneered and drew a second poké ball.

* * *

"Kadabra, jigglypuff, let's do it!" Jovi threw the poké balls into the air and allowed kadabra and jigglypuff to come out. As soon as they came out, they both growled at the onix. Onix growled back with an equally menacing growl. Claire looked mildly impressed when she saw kadabra.

"So, you snagged Breagull's shadow. You're not snagging mine though!"

"We'll see about that. Kadabra, shadow rush!" Kadabra's reacted to the instruction by charging straight at the onix. The attack did very little damage. Onix didn't even move from its spot.

"Onix, use your shadow rush!" The onix reacted by increasing the size of its shadowy aura. It then charged straight towards kadabra. The attack connected but again, it did little damage. But kadabra was knocked backwards and nearly fell off. It was able to use its psychic power to levitate back onto the platform. Jovi sighed with relief when she saw that kadabra was ok.

"Jigglypuff, shadow song!" Jigglypuff sung its sinister song on cue, immediately sending Claire's onix to sleep. Now Claire was beginning to worry. It couldn't do anything while it was asleep, so she had to do something about it.

"Onix, wake up!" At Claire's command, the onix woke up, although very slowly. Jovi kind of expected this to happen. Claire's shadow was proving much more dangerous than Breagull's. She was trying to think of a plan in her mind, but nothing came to mind immediately. The only option that eventually came to Jovi was if kadabra or jigglypuff had regained another move that they could use other than a shadow attack. It was a bit of a long shot, but it might just work.

"Kadabra, can you use anything else?" Kadabra seemed to ignore Jovi's call. It just stood there, looking as though it was in deep thought about something. Claire laughed at the sight of this.

"Looks like kadabra doesn't like you." Claire scoffed. Before anything else could happen, kadabra leapt into action. It's free hand suddenly burst into flame. It then suddenly lunged at the onix and punched it. This didn't do much damage though, but onix was more shaken from this attack than it was when kadabra used shadow rush. Jovi and Claire both recognised the attack that kadabra had just used.

"Fire punch. Somehow I don't' think that will be strong enough." Jovi thought to herself.

"Is that the best you can do?" Claire called out. She then noticed that onix was behaving slightly differently. It was rubbing the spot where kadabra had punched it on the ground vigorously, without using an attack. She then realised what was wrong. The spot where kadabra had punched it had turned black. Onix had been burned.

"Jigglypuff, is there anything you can do?" Jovi called out. Jigglypuff reacted to this. It jumped into the air and floated towards onix's face. Once it got there, it slapped onix in the face five times. Onix easily shrugged off this attack but continued to try and rub its burn.

"Doubleslap. That's not going to work against onix." Jovi thought to herself.

"Onix, shadow rush!" Claire shouted. Her onix rushed along the ground like it did before. The main difference was that it was trying to rub its burn at the same time. The resulting attack didn't do as much damage as last time. Onix hit kadabra with the attack, who looked completely unharmed.

"Kadabra, shadow mind!" Jovi knew this wouldn't do much but she needed to weaken the onix as much as she could if she was going to capture it. Kadabra's eyes glowed black and it aimed the hand with the twisted spoon towards onix. The onix was then levitated into the air. With a twist of kadabra's hand, it slammed onix back into the platform headfirst. The resulting attack did cause a slight tremor that nearly made both Jovi and Claire fall over. Onix didn't seem that harmed by the attack, but it was clearly weaker than it was. As soon as it recovered, it began rubbing its burn again.

"Jigglypuff, shadow blitz!" Jovi instructed. Jigglypuff charged into the onix, increasing the intensity of its shadowy aura as it did. This did very little damage, but onix was beginning to suffer. It was now struggling to stay upright. Jovi realised that it was going to faint from its burn very soon unless she captured it. She began loading the snag machine while Claire issued her next command.

"Onix, shadow tremor!" Claire shouted. Onix raised its tail and slammed it back into the ground as hard as it could, though the burn had crippled it. The tremor was much weaker than the one that had knocked out Plipli and Mimi, but still strong enough to send kadabra and jigglypuff to the floor. Both pokémon got up immediately again. By now, Jovi had finished loading the snag machine. She was using a great ball, as she couldn't afford to take any chances with onix. Claire hadn't noticed, as she was more concerned about the safety of her onix than what Jovi was doing.

"It ends Claire. Great ball go!" As Jovi said this, she threw the great ball that had been converted by the snag machine. By the time Claire had realised, the ball had found its target. Onix disappeared into the ball within a flash. All anybody could do now was watch and look at the ball as it rocked from side to side. Eventually though, the snag was successful. The ball locked and was transported to Jovi's PC storage system.

* * *

"N-NO!" Claire shouted as the ball disappeared. Jovi had won the battle and captured another shadow pokémon. Jovi gave a sigh of relief and recalled kadabra and Jigglypuff back into their poké balls. As soon as they were inside, she looked at both of them.

"Thank you guys. You were awesome." Jovi said into the poké balls. She put them away and looked at Claire. She was on all fours trying to cope with the loss of her shadow pokémon. Jovi almost felt sorry for her. Almost, but not completely. She went over to Claire with a smirk on her face.

"What were you saying about me not being able to get your shadow pokémon?" Jovi taunted. Claire looked up with a sinister sneer on her face.

"I can see how you were able to defeat Breagull."

"And I'll defeat the rest of you as well." Claire was able to cock a smirk. She finally stood up and looked at Jovi.

"There are more of us than you can ever imagine. If you want my advice, you'll quit before you we release the XD150 on you."

"Hang on. What is this XD150? I know it's another pokémon that you think can't be purified. What kind of pokémon is it?" Claire cocked a sinister smile.

"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise. All I'll say is that we used the same data from the XD001 to create it." Claire fled the scene after she said this. Along the way, she dropped 2,400 in prize money and another disc. Jovi took the prize money and picked up the disc that Claire had dropped. Like the one Breagull had dropped, it contained a partial list of shadow pokémon. Jovi uploaded the new pokémon into her PDA and had a look at the new additions.

18. Slowpoke

19. Tyrogue

20. Haunter

21. Graveller

22. Magnemite

23. Kingler

24. Koffing

25. Nidorino

26. Nidorina

27. Seadra

28. Electrode

29. Dewgong

30. Seaking

31. Jynx

32. - - - -

"I hope I can complete this list quickly. The list is still incomplete." Jovi muttered once she had finished scanning through the new shadow pokémon that she had downloaded onto her PDA. She put the PDA and had a look around. The first thing that she saw was Vander, standing at the doorway to the break room. Vander had obviously taken the opportunity to get further back from the action. Jovi walked over to Vander with a concerned look on her face.

"Are you ok?" Jovi asked. Vander looked back at her with a smile on his face.

"Thank you young girl." Vander replied.

"The name's Jovi."

"Oh yes, Eagun told me you were coming. So, you're taking the fight to Cipher are you?"

"You bet I am." Vander then noticed the snag machine that was on Jovi's arm. It reminded him of Jovi's brother that he had met three years ago.

"Jovi, that snag machine looks like the one Michael used three years ago." Jovi simply smirked in response to Vander's comment.

"That's because it's the same snag machine. Michael's my brother."

"I should've guessed. Your battle style reflects his in a way."

"You've battled him?"

"Yes I did. He beat me totally." Jovi smirked again. Vander couldn't help but smirk back.

"Vander, what was it that you saw that Cipher wanted to hide?"

"Of course, I nearly forgot about that. This is no place to talk. Why don't we go back to the reception and talk there."

"Sure. I need to heal my pokémon anyway."


	17. A mysterious message

**A mysterious message**

Jovi and Vander had walked back down to the reception counter at Mt. Battle. Now that Jovi had saved the place, it could reopen for challengers. Jovi had just finished healing her pokémon back to full strength. Vander was just sitting on one of the benches in the reception area. He had a small flute in his hand and was looking at it intensely. He looked over to Jovi, who as now walking towards him with her pokémon back at full strength. He put the flute to his side and allowed Jovi to sit down. Nearly as soon as she did, she let Plipli and Mimi out of their poké balls. As soon as they came out, they jumped onto Jovi's lap. Jovi looked down at her two pokémon and petted them.

"Plipli, Mimi, I'm sorry about what happened to you guys back there." Jovi said. Her pokémon just looked up, squeaked a little and then took a small snooze on her lap. Jovi just smiled at them.

"Those plusle and minun you have there are quite tough." Vander suddenly said. Jovi jumped slightly, disturbing her pokémon. Jovi looked at Vander and smiled. Plipli and Mimi settled back down and went back to sleep.

"Thanks."

"But I never knew that plusle and minun could use water pulse."

"According to Krane, normally they can't."

"There may be something in the atmosphere in this region that affects pokémon's minds and allows then to learn moves they can't usually learn. It happened during the last shadow incident."

"I know. All of the shadow pokémon my brother caught had unusual moves. He said that the lugia could use Psycho Boost and Feather Dance."

"Interesting." Jovi paused for thought about the brief discussion that she had had. Perhaps she would suggest it to Krane once Cipher had been crushed. But for now, Cipher was a more important issue to deal with. That reminded her of why she had come to Mt. Battle in the first place.

"Vander, what did you see that Cipher wanted to keep you quiet about?"

"Oh gosh, I nearly forgot. Thanks for reminding me."

"I only just remembered myself."

"But anyway. About two days ago, I was doing some solitary late night training on Mt. Battle, preparing myself for the future challengers that would arrive…"

* * *

_Flashback_

Vander was in zone 10 of Mt. Battle, with his whismur and machop out on the field. The two pokémon were looking at each other. Although they knew each other well, they weren't willing to hold back against each other in this training match with each other. Vander was standing to the side with some healing items ready just in case one of them got badly injured during training.

"Ok machop, use focus energy!" Vander instructed. His machop took a deep breath and took a firm stance.

"Whismur, use astonish!" Vander's whismur hid its face behind its paws. It then suddenly moved its paws and pulled a shocking face. Machop was so surprised that it fell backwards.

"Don't let it put you off machop. Use karate chop. Whismur, dodge with double team!" Machop rushed towards whismur just after whismur had created two copies of itself. Machop chopped at one of them but it disappeared. The real whismur then suddenly looked up into the sky and to the north. Machop didn't want to attack its friend while it was distracted so it stopped moving and looked at where whismur was looking.

"Guys, what is it?" Whismur and machop ignored Vander and just looked up into the sky a bit more. Vander got a little curious and had a look as well. He could just make out some things flying in the sky to the north, but couldn't make it out clearly.

"Machop, use your foresight." Machop's eyes glowed red briefly and two red rays shot out, illuminating the objects slightly better. Vander could not believe what he saw. He saw some helicopters flying past and a train in the sky. He was unable to see how the train was flying though. He couldn't even see the helicopters clearly, but for him there was only one explanation.

"Cipher."

_End Flashback

* * *

_

"So you saw the XD150 carrying the train that Cipher attacked." Jovi reasoned.

"I never got round to telling the authorities because we had so many challenges yesterday. Then today, cipher attacked us." Vander explained.

"But how did they know that you had seen them?"

"They must have spotted my machop's foresight attack. Any ideas what the XD150 is?"

"All that we know is that it's a shape shifter." Vander sat and went into thought for a moment. There was nothing that immediately came to mind about the possible identity of the XD150. The only pokémon that he knew that were shape shifters were ditto and castform. He didn't know about any others.

"Maybe it's a pokémon that isn't known to science yet."

"It could be. The only way that I'll find out is by capturing it." On that note, Jovi's PDA bleeped. She opened it up and had a look at it. Her ekans, pikachu, jigglypuff and rattata were now ready for purification. She would have to go to the relic forest to purify jigglypuff, ekans and pikachu and then back to the lab to purify rattata. Jovi recalled her napping pokémon and then stood up.

"I need to go and purify some pokémon." Jovi said.

"Before you go Jovi, I'd like you to take this." Vander said. He reached for the flute that he had and gave it to Jovi. The flute was green in color but looked like a normal flute otherwise.

"That's a time flute. If you play it in front of the relic in agate village, it can summon celebi." Vander explained.

"What use would celebi be for me? Catching it would probably debalance nature."

"According to the people involved in the first shadow incident, if a shadow pokémon encounters a celebi, it is purified instantly. It can only be used once, so save it for a special pokémon." After hearing this, Jovi's eyes lit up. She knew that if anything could purify the XD150 if she caught it, the time flute had the best chance of doing so.

"Thanks Vander. I'm off." Jovi put the time flute in her bag and left Mt. Battle very quickly.

* * *

Jovi went all the way back to the HQ lab, stopping at Agate village to purify her pokémon along the way. When jigglypuff was purified at the relic stone, it regained sing, water pulse and screech. Ekans relearned poison sting, glare and refresh. Pikachu regained thundershock, thunder wave, slam and surf. Jovi was now at the purify chamber purifying rattata. As soon as it was purified, it regained tackle, icy wind, hyper fang and covet. Ekans had been nicknamed Slider, pikachu had been nicknamed Peeka and rattata had been nicknamed Ratty. She then placed hoothoot where Ratty was, deposited jigglypuff, ekans and pikachu and withdrew onix, clefairy and machop. She removed Ziggy from the set it was in and placed Peeka in the set, looking at Squirty. The tempo was boosted slightly as a result, but not by much. Once she was done with this, she went up to the main office in the lab to have a chat with Krane about how things were going. They had learned about what had happened before Jovi had returned, because Vander had contacted them and told them about it. 

"Seems like you're becoming quite the hero Jovi." Krane began.

"So far I am. If you were still in trouble at that lab, I'd be going there to save you right now." Jovi replied with a laugh. Krane joined in the laughter.

"I'm sure you would, but your brother got there first." Jovi just sighed. She often wondered how her brother was doing. She hadn't heard from him in a while now. But Jovi had another reason for training, not just to crush Cipher. She also wanted to find her brother, just to see him again. She also wondered what had become of her old friend Chobin. Ever since he had been going around on the robo groudon, she hadn't seen him or heard from him at all. It was much lonelier whenever she went to visit Kaminko's lab without him around. Maybe she would meet up with him again someday. Only time would tell that or not.

"Jovi?"" Krane asked. Jovi had spaced out in her thoughts and nearly jumped out of her skin, but she quickly calmed down.

"Sorry, I just spaced out then." Jovi said sheepishly. They both laughed but then Krane looked at Jovi.

"Apparently, you have a partial list of the shadow pokémon that have been made."

"Yes. I downloaded them onto my PDA.

"Do you still have the discs that you downloaded the data from?" Jovi opened her bag and had a fish around in there. She had a fair bit in there now but she eventually found the discs that she was looking for. While she was rummaging through, Krane noticed the time flute in her bag. Jovi placed the two discs on the desk and then closed her bag.

"I see you acquired a time flute." Krane said. Jovi looked up and nodded.

"Vander gave it to me. I'm going to save it for the XD150."

"That's if celebi will be able to purify it. Besides, you might find more of them."

"How many are there then?"

"Nobody knows for certain."

"Krane, why did you ask if I still had the discs?"

"Because there may be a way to get the full list and identify the XD150 from these discs."

"How?"

"Jovi, you've heard of ONBS haven't you?"

"Of course I have."

"Well the person in charge of electronics there is a person called Nett. He should be able to hack into those discs and get the full list of shadow pokémon for us." Jovi had already figured out what Krane was going to ask her to do/

"So you want me to take these discs to him."

"You got it. ONBS is located…" Before Krane could finish, Jovi's PDA rang. She took it out and opened it. She had a message from am anonymous messenger.

"Jovi, I hear that you are becoming quite the hero of late. I'd like to see you and have a chat. I'll be waiting for you at Outskirt Stand. Come as soon as you can. Lunch will be on me." The message read. Jovi read the message aloud so Krane could hear it.

"Who could've sent this?" Jovi asked.

"Are you going to go there and find out?" Krane asked. Jovi looked up at Krane.

"I think I should."

"Be careful though. You have no way of knowing this person's intent."

"With Plipli and Mimi, I'll be fine."

"Ok, if you're sure." Krane pulled out a map and pointed to a point in the southern-east most area of the Orre region.

"Outskirt Stand is right there. It looks like an old locomotive, so you'll recognise it immediately." Krane explained.

"Thanks. I'll come back here as soon as I'm done."


	18. Outskirt Stand

(A/N: I apologise for the delay on this chapter. I just had no ideas for it.)

**Outskirt Stand**

By the time Jovi arrived at Outskirt stand, it was time to set up camp. The sun had set and she was very tired. The day had been very chaotic, especially since she had been disturbed the previous night by Miror B. Not only that, the trek up Mt. Battle had taken a lot out of her, and the climax with Claire's shadow onix was the closest she had come to being defeat so far on her journey. She had set up her camping equipment around the back of Outskirt stand to keep away from prying eyes. She was currently in her sleeping bag writing in her diary. Plipli and Mimi were still awake and looking around the scene. Even though there was a fire, they couldn't see much. Jovi wasn't looking at them, as she was too busy writing in her diary. Besides, she trusted them well enough so they wouldn't wonder off while she wasn't looking.

"Dear Diary,

The second day on my quest to stop Cipher has put me through a troublesome time. After the freaky incident the previous night, I had to go and purify some pokémon at the Lab. There was an incident when my shadow pokémon challenged Plipli and Mimi for their food. I had to recall them before they started trouble. On the way, I stocked up on supplies at Agate village. After purifying Squirtle at the pokémon lab, I reported to Lily about what had happened at Agate village. I told the lab about the XD150. Krane suggested that it might be a pokémon called mewtwo at first, but the news report about the train heist suggests that it can shape-shift. Now nobody has any idea of what it is. I then returned to Mt. Battle, only to find that Cipher had attacked it while I was gone. I easily captured the guard's shadow hoothoot. Once inside the reception, I battled another cipher peon and captured his shadow machop. This was a much harder battle but I won with a bluff tactic and caught machop by surprise. The receptionist that I saved healed all of my pokémon afterwards and I then went on to find Vander. Along the way, I found more 2 more cipher peons. They had a shadow metapod and a shadow kakuna. Metapod was defensive and slightly tricky to catch but I didn't give kakuna a chance. After those two, I met up with the cipher admin involved and one more cipher peon. He had a shadow tentacool on him. This was an easy battle, since I had electric pokémon and it was captured easily. Cipher admin Clair was nowhere near easy. She used rock type pokémon. One of them was a bonsly, something that my brother had told me about, but it was the first time I'd actually seen one. I was able to plough through most of her team with Plipli and Mimi's water pulse, but bonsly and her nosepass were tougher to beat. The worst then came when she sent her shadow onix against me. By that time, her nosepass had paralysed Plipli with a thunder wave, but my water pulse attacks had confused it. It ended up defeating itself in the process, but then onix took out both Plipli and Mimi. I followed up with two shadow pokémon and was eventually able to capture her onix. During the battle, kadabra learned fire punch and jigglypuff learned Doubleslap. I had to use a great ball to catch it, as it was too strong for a poké ball. Once I had defeated Claire, she gave me another partial list of created shadow pokémon. Vander did notice that I shared the same battle style as my brother. With Vander, I went back down to the reception and had my pokémon healed. Vander was then able to tell me what he saw. He was training his pokémon and saw a train flying past with some helicopters. I figured that the XD150, whatever it is, was carrying the train. During the chat with Vander, I found that four of my pokémon were ready for purification. I would have to go to relic forest to purify three of them but back to the lab to purify the fourth. Before I left, Vander gave me a time flute. He told me that it could summon celebi and apparently celebi has the power to instantly purify a shadow pokémon. When I returned back to the lab after my detour to the relic forest, I told professor Krane about the incomplete shadow pokémon lists that I had found. He told me that if I took them to ONBS, they might be able to complete the list. It was also about this time that I received a rather mysterious message on my PDA. The message told me to meet somebody at Outskirt stand. By the time I got there, it was dark so I decided to set up camp. Who has sent me the message? My mind is full of speculation of possibilities but one name stands out in particular. I'm sure I will find out tomorrow."

After writing in her diary, Jovi had a brief look around the area. She could see Plipli and Mimi looking around the area as well. It was almost as if they were looking for something, but weren't sure what. Jovi gave a whistle and they came running up to her.

"Is something wrong?" Jovi asked her pokémon. They responded by squeaking quietly. They looked a little nervous about something. Jovi had another look around the area. This time she saw something. There was a figure sitting on top of Outskirt stand. The moment she saw it, it disappeared in a blue flash. Plipli and Mimi were now hiding away from where the figure had just been seen.

"What was that?" Jovi asked herself. She quickly opened up her diary again and added an additional entry.

"Additional. Before going to sleep, I saw a mysterious figure on top of Outskirt stand. The moment I saw it, it vanished, so I was unable to identify it. I need to find out what it was and if it had good intentions or not." After writing this addition, she put her diary away and looked down at her nervous pokémon.

"Plipli, Mimi, its best if we just try and forget about the figure and try to get some sleep." Jovi said. With that, Jovi rested her head on her pillow, and went to try and get some sleep. Plipli and Mimi just looked around again nervously. The figure that they then saw on Outskirt stand appeared again. Before they could do anything, the figure then vanished again. Plipli and Mimi remained silent. They were too scared to even squeak for the moment.

* * *

Plipli and Mimi did finally fall asleep for the night and there were no disturbances. By the time Jovi woke up, the sun was already up. It was about 9:00, about time for breakfast. She saw Plipli and Mimi fast asleep on her bag. The snag machine was still attacked to her arm, which came as a relief. She had completely forgotten about the incident last night now, because she was more anxious about finding the person who had sent her that e-mail. Plipli and Mimi were still fast asleep, so Jovi shook them gently to wake them up. They both looked up slowly. Jovi could tell that they were still tired just from the looks in their eyes.

"Do you two want to sleep in your poké balls?" Jovi asked. Plipli and Mimi didn't reply, but rather yawned and stood up. Jovi took that as a no and began packing up the campsite. The campfire had long since burnt out. The figure that Jovi and her pokémon had seen had long since vanished, though Plipli and Mimi were still weary of it. After packing up the campsite, Jovi went into Outskirt stand, followed by her pokémon. The moment she went in, the news channel was showing the most recent news event. The headline was the incident at Mt. Battle yesterday.

"Yesterday Mt. Battle was attacked by Cipher peons. Their target appeared to be Vander, one of the most well known area leaders. Their plan was foiled by the same young girl who had defeated them at Agate village a couple of days ago. Cipher appears to growing more active with each new attack. Citizens around the orre region are encouraged to be extra vigilante. Let's bring cipher down again."

Jovi gave a small smile to herself. There were a few people already in the restaurant area of Outskirt stand and the owner was at the till. When the news had finished, he turned and saw Jovi at the entrance. Before he could say anything, she had walked up to the till and took a seat briefly on one of the seats. Plipli and Mimi simply jumped up onto her lap and promptly went to sleep. The owner leaned on the till to have a quiet word with Jovi.

"Are you Jovi?" The owner asked. Jovi nodded in response. There was no point in hiding her name if she was going to be fighting against cipher.

"Yes, I'm Jovi." Jovi replied.

"Great work with fighting cipher. Someone came here looking for you yesterday."

"Who was it?"

"He preferred to remain anonymous, but he said he'd be here this morning." Jovi was a little disappointed that whoever wanted to see her wanted to remain anonymous but somehow suspected it anyway. The e-mail she received was anonymous so she kind of knew that whoever it was wanted an air of mystery about him, but she began to wonder if the person was the figure who she had seen the previous night. All she could do for the moment was sit and wait for the person who sent the e-mail to arrive. She was about to step down from the stool to sit at one of the tables when the owner spoke to her again.

"If you're interested, I stock specialist poké balls here." Jovi's ears pricked up and she turned to look at him.

"What kind of poke balls?" The owner replied by taking out two different types of poké ball. Each one had a different colouring to the types of poké balls she had seen up till now. The first he pointed to was a blue ball with what looked like a green net over it.

"That's a net ball. It's more effective on pokémon of the bug or water type." The owner then pointed to the other ball. It was white mostly, but had a orange stripe on the top, black on either side of the stripe and red on the sides. "And that's a timer ball. The more turns you take in battle, the more effective it is. Normally, I also stock Nest balls, which work better on pokémon that are weaker than yours, but I'm fresh out of those."

"So they're very situational then."

"But I hear that in the right situation, they're more effective than ultra balls." Hearing this, Jovi took out her PDA and had a look at the partially complete shadow pokémon list. Looking at this, she saw that she had a lo9t of water type shadow pokémon to capture coming up.

"How much are they?" Jovi asked.

"They're 1000 each but I'll let you take five of each as a free sample." The owner took out four more of each ball type and gave them to Jovi.

"Thanks sir." Jovi replied in a whisper. She took the balls gratefully and put them in her bag. Before anything else could happen, there were a few gasps coming from other customers sitting at the tables. Jovi suddenly turned to see what was going on and saw everybody looking out of the windows.

"What is that?" Somebody asked.

"I think it's a pokémon." Another replied.

"It's huge!" A third said. Jovi's interest was pickled. She went over to a free window at the far end and had a look for herself. A giant bird like pokémon was landing outside Outskirt stand. Jovi could also see what looked like a long tail from the bird. She then had a gut feeling.

"Lugia." Jovi thought to herself. Without hesitation, Jovi ran with Plipli and Mimi to the door that led outside, thinking to herself "There's only one person I know who has a Lugia."


	19. Sibling reunion

**Sibling reunion**

Jovi rushed outside the Outskirt stand to see an awesome sight. There was the Lugia that had been seen from inside Outskirt stand. It wasn't the first time she had seen a lugia, but it still looked spectacular. She could only imagine the power that it was capable of. She had only heard stories of lugia's terrifying power. Despite this, the lugia seemed gentle from just appearance. Even so, Plipli and Mimi looked terrified. They were hiding behind Jovi and shivering, only peeping out from behind her legs to stare at the lugia. It tilted its head away from Jovi and lowered it. Jovi could just see a hand pat the lugia on its head. It then made a quiet, presumably happy cry and closed its eyes as it was petted. It then raised its head back into the air. It then turned red and disappeared into a master ball held by the lugia's trainer; a young boy that Jovi recognised immediately. It was Michael, just like she suspected.

"Brother!" Jovi exclaimed. Michael looked towards Jovi. He hadn't changed over the times that he had left the region, other than being a little taller. Plipli and Mimi leapt out from behind Jovi and let out a squeak of joy. Michael just smiled and walked up to Jovi.

"Great to see you Jovi." Michael greeted. Jovi suddenly leapt into her brother's arms and hugged him, forgetting that she was still wearing the snag machine. Michael wasn't hurt by the impact of the snag machine though. He simply hugged Jovi back, glad to see his sister again. After the hug, Plipli and Mimi jumped up into Michael's arms and squeaked. Michael gave both pokémon a pet on their heads. "How are you two then?" Plipli and Mimi both squeaked in response to Michael's question. Michael then looked over at Jovi. "These two look quite strong. You've done well training them." Jovi blushed a little at Michael's comment.

"Thank you big brother." Jovi replied sheepishly. She was a little embarrassed about being praised by her brother. Michael let both pokémon down and they ran back to Jovi. Michael then put a hand on Jovi's shoulder. It was then that Jovi realised that there was something bugging her. "How did you get my PDA number?" Jovi asked Michael.

"I contacted the lab and asked Lily and Krane, but I also asked them not to tell you that I was contacting you."

"They knew that you were going to contact me?" Jovi was a little irritated that Krane and Lily knew but didn't tell her. Michael just laughed.

"I wanted to surprise you. That's why I asked them to not tell you." Jovi let out a small smirk.

"Brother, I kind of guessed that it was you when I saw lugia land. You're the only person I know who owns a lugia." Michael looked down at his neck. He had made a small necklace with the master ball that contained lugia attached with a magnet. He took the ball and held it briefly. Keeping it there made it harder to steal, since any potential thief would have to disturb him to take it and he could easily knock it in such a way that it would open.

"I suppose it did." Michael let go of the ball and it swung back down. Lugia was his most powerful pokémon, the reason that he currently had an unbeaten record. "How about we go inside and have some food?" Michael asked, quickly changing the subject.

"I'd like that. There a few things that I want to talk to you about anyway."

"Is it about the shadow pokémon?" Jovi's eyes lit up the moment that Michael mentioned the shadow pokémon.

"How did you know that they're back?"

"Because I battled one recently. I couldn't see the aura but I recognised the violent nature of the pokémon. That's one of the reasons that I wanted to contact you." Jovi pulled out her PDA in response to what Michael said. She then proceeded to show the list of shadow pokémon that she knew about.

"Was the one you saw on this list?" Michael had a look at the list for a brief moment. He finally saw the shadow pokémon that he saw on the list.

"It was the shadow magnemite. I battled it at Pyrite. A trainer in what is known as Duel Square had it." Jovi's ears pricked up. She was heading to Pyrite herself to see Nett at ONBS.

"I was heading to Pyrite next." Michael was a little surprised at this. He wasn't expecting Jovi to be going there so soon. He then decided that they had been outside for long enough.

"Jovi, let's head inside and have some food. You can tell me about what you've seen so far while we're eating." Jovi nodded in response. She was quite hungry and no doubt her pokémon were as well.

* * *

A few moments later, Jovi and Michael were sitting at a table in Outskirt stand, having their breakfast. Jovi had taken out her PDA, the discs she had gotten from the two admin's she had defeated and the poké balls that contained her shadow pokémon. Plipli and Mimi were sitting next to the poké balls having their food. Michael had also let his jolteon out. Jolteon was on the floor having his food. While they were eating, Jovi was recounting her tales to Michael. In particular, she mentioned what was known about the XD150 and about the figure that she had seen the previous night. Michael listened to everything Jovi was saying and looked through his own PDA to see if he had any matches to the pokémon she was describing. Since Jovi couldn't fully describe what she saw the previous night, he couldn't even come up with a guess as to what it might have been. However, he figured what it might have been.

"Jovi, were you ever told about the first shadow incident?" Michael asked.

"A little. But I don't know any of the finer details." Jovi replied.

"Well, one thing I learnt after I had defeated cipher was that the first two heroes had a legendary pokémon watching over them. It was that pokémon that prevented Evice, the then leader of the Orre branch of cipher, from escaping the police." Jovi's interest was pickled upon hearing this story. She leaned in a little closer to her brother.

"What was the pokémon?" Michael showed Jovi his PDA and found the pokémon in question. He had seen it in a reference book and logged it in his PDA, though he hadn't seen it for real.

"It's called ho-oh. It's a legendary pokémon that is similar to the lugia I own. From what I've learned, it's a fire and a flying type." Jovi looked at the picture on Michael's PDA and tried to remember what she had seen the previous night.

"Well, it wasn't a ho-oh I saw."

"You might have seen a different legendary pokémon. If it is watching over you, you have a good chance, but don't let it go to your head." Jovi began to think. If she had time, she would have to find a book on legendary pokémon and see if she could find a match to what she saw.

"What about the XD150?" Michael's head fell slightly.

"I don't have a match in my PDA. It's most likely a pokémon I haven't seen before."

"How many have you seen?"

"There's supposed to be 493 known pokémon. I've only seen 217 of those, less than half of the total." This began to boggle Jovi's mind. There were so many pokémon that Michael hadn't even seen, and the XD150 could be any one of them. "The XD150 could be any of the 276 that I haven't seen. But I know how we can limit the search even more." Michael continued.

"What do you mean brother?"

"Out of the 217 pokémon that I have seen, I've seen 8 legendary pokémon, including lugia. There's still more legendary pokémon. How many I don't know. If we can research the known legendary pokémon, we could find some possible candidates for both the XD150 and the pokémon that you saw last night." Michael then briefly stood up from the table. "I'm just going to get some more drinks. I'll be back in a minute." With that, Michael walked over to the bar area of Outskirt stand. Jovi decided to lean back and contemplate the discussion she had just had. It would take some research of everyone involved to discover the identity of the XD 150. If Nett at ONBS could decipher the data on the discs, then that could go a long way to discovering the identity of the mystery pokémon, or at least reduce the number of possible candidates. While she was leaning back, Plipli and Mimi finished eating and snuggled up on her lap. It was then that she heard somebody talking to her from the other side of the seat.

"Kid, that was an interesting discussion you just had." The voice said. Jovi looked behind her to see a man with pinkish hair sitting behind her. "You're the new kid taking on cipher huh? You must have some awesome pokémon." The man said.

"Erm, thanks?" Jovi replied, a little concerned about the man.

"If I ever get the chance, I'd like to have a battle with you." The man paused only to have a silent snigger. "Though I doubt you'd be able to beat me." Jovi was a little put off about saying anything in response, because she didn't know the guy. She instead chose to ignore him and wait for Michael to come back. He did come back soon with two glasses of lemonade. He did notice that Jovi looked a little uncomfortable.

"Anything wrong Jovi?" Michael asked. Jovi suddenly snapped out of her little trance with a shake of her head, which disturbed Plipli and Mimi.

"What? Err… nothing. I'm fine" Jovi replied. Michael didn't quite believe her but he decided to change the subject.

"Jovi, once we've had our drinks, we should go outside and feed your shadow pokémon." Jovi looked at her brother, took the glass and took a sip of lemonade.

"Ok. Good idea."

* * *

As soon as they finished their drinks, Jovi and Michael went to the outside to feed the Shadow pokémon. Michael went to the till to pay for the breakfast while Jovi went outside, followed by Plipli and Mimi. As she was walking out, the person who had called to her earlier overtook her. The man was wearing a riders' jacket and had spiky hair. The man turned around and had a look at Jovi.

"I know you now. You're the trainer who liberated Mt. Battle. Hi there, the name's Willie." The man greeted, offering a hand in friendship. Jovi hesitantly took the hand and shook.

"My name's Jovi." Jovi greeted.

"Thrilled Jovi. Her, would you like a battle with me?" Jovi's eyes lit up. She was a little bored, despite seeing her brother again.

"Sure, challenge accepted."

"Great, there's a good area just there." Willie pointed to a clearing next to the gas pumps. He then walked over there. Jovi shrugged and followed, with Plipli and Mimi following her. Michael walked out soon after and decided to watch the battle. He leaned on the railing and just watched. Willie mimed a bicycle riding action and revved the imaginary bike.

"Vroom, Vroom, I'm on fire baby! Time to rock and roll!" Willie chanted. Jovi shrugged but said nothing. Willie then pulled out two poké balls and threw them to the ground. "Zigzagoon and zigzagoon, time to rock!" Both poké balls opened and revealed two zigzagoon's. Both pokémon let out a playful bark. Jovi looked down at Plipli and Mimi.

"Plipli, Mimi, time to battle." Jovi said sweetly. Both pokémon squeaked and walked forward before assuming a battle position. Michael just smiled from where he was watching the battle.

"This shouldn't be too hard for you Jovi." Michael thought to himself.


	20. Sibling alliance

**Sibling alliance**

"Mimi, helping hand! Plipli, use spark on either of the zigzagoon!" Jovi instructed, making the first move. Mimi grabbed Plipli's hand and powered her up. Plipli then let go and unleashed her spark attack, hitting one of the zigzagoon's heavily and paralysing it. The zigzagoon was hit fell to the ground and slowly climbed back up slowly, showing signs that it couldn't take much more.

"Zigzagoon, use tail whip!" Willie instructed. The zigzagoon that hadn't been hit turned around so its back was facing Plipli and Mimi and then just wagged its tail. Both Plipli and Mimi sweat-dropped, not knowing what to do. "Zigzagoon, use dig!" Willie continued. The zigzagoon that Plipli had hit mustered up all its strength left and dug a hole. Jovi could see what was coming, and needed to think of a way to counter it. She began to consider all her options that she could do to avoid the attack that was going to come up in a moment. She reluctantly decided to attack the other zigzagoon with a different tactic and hope for the best. She then came up with an idea that might cause a heavy impact.

"Mimi, use water pulse on the visible zigzagoon!" Jovi instructed. The attack came fast and the zigzagoon could not evade. The attack left its mark; leaving the zigzagoon wet and it appeared to be confused. It began running in circles trying to bite its own tail. "Plipli, follow up with spark!" Plipli charged up her body and unleashed her speak attack on the zigzagoon. The attack landed and the zigzagoon fell down for the count.

"Nice move." Michael thought to himself. Willie had to recall his fallen zigzagoon. He looked at the poké ball that contained the zigzagoon.

"You did well zigzagoon, take a rest." Willie then looked at Jovi. "I have to admit, I didn't see that coming. But the battle isn't over. Zigzagoon, time to attack!" The underground zigzagoon jumped out of the ground underneath Mimi, knocking him into the air and then down onto the ground.

"Mimi, are you ok?" Jovi called to her pokémon. Mimi began trying to climb to his feet. It nearly climbed up before falling down again. This time, he was down for the count. Plipli rushed over and tried to help Mimi up, but didn't succeed. Jovi ran onto the field and picked Mimi up. "Mimi, you did well. Take a rest." Jovi then looked down at Plipli. "It's up to you Plipli. Use quick attack!" Plipli lurched down and then rushed into the remaining zigzagoon at top speed. It didn't have the stamina to take the hit and it was down for the count. Willie recalled it into his poké ball and then did a comedy fall backwards.

"Tch, handed the loss. I still need seasoning." Willie muttered as he fell. Jovi couldn't help but smirk while Michael just smiled. He walked over to Jovi and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Great battle Jovi. You certainly have a lot of skill, and Plipli and Mimi are very strong." Michael complimented. Willie had now climbed back to his feet and walked up to Jovi.

"Woah, I concede. There's nothing fake about your strength Jovi." Willie complimented while handing her 320 in prize money.

"Thanks Willie." Jovi replied. Willie looked over to Michael.

"She may be good, but I can tell that she has a long way to go before she's at your level Michael, but just watch out. I can tell she has the potential to surpass you by a long way."

"I'll take your word for it." Michael replied. Willie smiled and went back into Outskirt stand. Jovi, meanwhile, looked over at her brother.

"Do you and Willie know each other?" Jovi asked.

"I battled him a long time ago. I can tell you that he hasn't changed at all since I battled him." Jovi cracked a small smile. "Jovi, just one question. While you were at Mt. Battle, did you see Vander? And if you did, did he say anything about me?" Before Jovi could reply to her brother, a vehicle driving dangerously close to them interrupted them. Michael leapt at Jovi and pushed her out of harms way and avoided the vehicle himself. The vehicle was a truck similar to the one that had abducted Krane three years ago. A single cipher peon stepped out of the truck.

"Found you pest. Return the shadow pokémon now!" The peon hollered. Jovi scoffed and drew a poké ball.

"Try taking them from me." Jovi replied. Another peon then stepped out from the other side.

"You can't take on both of us at once, no matter how good you are!" The second peon said. Neither of them had noticed Michael until he walked back into view, holding one of his poké balls.

"Spread the fun." Michael said coolly. Neither of the peons recognised Michael and didn't show any signs of worry.

"So, two on two. This will be interesting." One of the peons said. Michael looked over at Jovi.

"If there are any shadow pokémon, let me know." Michael instructed.

"Ok brother." Jovi replied.

* * *

One of the cipher peons threw out a poké ball containing a spearow while the other released a pidgeotto from his poké ball. Jovi threw her poké ball into the battlefield.

"Go clefairy!" Jovi exclaimed. Clefairy came out of its ball and let out a menacing growl. The growl told Michael that it was a shadow pokémon. Michael threw the poké ball that he was holding.

"Go ursaring!" Michael exclaimed. Ursaring came out of its ball and roared. Jovi's clefairy looked at ursaring and tried to intimidate it with a growl.

"Clefairy, don't harm the ursaring. Go for the spearow!"

"Then I'll have ursaring take the pidgeotto."

"We'll win!" One of the peons shouted.

"Nobody can beat the duo of Brendan and Alex!" The other shouted.

"I'd like to see you try to win." Michael said coolly.

"Spearow, Fury attack on clefairy!" Alex shouted. Without any hesitation, the spearow lunged at Jovi's clefairy and pecked it 4 times before stopping.

"Pidgeotto, use gust on ursaring!" Brendan shouted. The pidgeotto whipped up a small tornado with its wings and it hit ursaring, but did hardly anything to ursaring.

"Ursaring, use return on pidgeotto!" Michael instructed. Ursaring focused its power and then smashed the pidgeotto, KOing it in a single blow. Brendan recalled the fainted pidgeotto and then threw another pokémon.

"Go, psyduck!" Brendan shouted. The psyduck that appeared just held its head and maintained a blank expression.

"Clefairy, use shadow metronome!" Jovi instructed. Clefairy began waving its fingers until they glowed black. A black shield then appeared around clefairy and then disappeared, leaving a shadowy residue on clefairy.

"Was that Shadow Guard?" Brendan whispered to Alex

"It might have been." Alex replied.

"Michael, Shadow metronome duplicates a random shadow attack. It's unpredictable, but it's clefairy's best move." Jovi whispered into her brother's ear. Michael just nodded.

"Let's just hope that it doesn't backfire on us. Ursaring, use return on the psyduck!" Michael responded. Ursaring built up power and attacked the psyduck, KOing it in one hit. Brendan sighed and recalled the fallen psyduck.

"You are good, but you won't beat this thing. Go mankey!" Brendan shouted as he threw his final pokémon. The mankey that appeared got into a fighting position.

"Spearow, use fury attack!" Alex instructed, but the spearow didn't respond. Instead, it stared at the clefairy with a look of what appeared to be loved. This caused Michael to snigger.

"Cute charm." Michael muttered under his breath.

"Clefairy, shadow metronome again!" Jovi instructed. Clefairy began waving its fingers again until they glowed. This time, clefairy charged at spearow at top speed, smashing it into a fuel pump. The result was on instant KO. Jovi seemed taken aback by the moves power, especially since it looked like it hurt clefairy as well.

"What was that?" Jovi asked.

"I can only hazard a guess. That might have been shadow end." Michael replied. Alex recalled his spearow and threw his second poké ball.

* * *

"Go, slowpoke!" Alex shouted. The slowpoke that came out didn't seem to do anything, but it looked a little more aggressive than an ordinary slowpoke. Jovi then saw why it looked more aggressive. The aura catcher responded.

"Michael, that slowpoke is a shadow pokémon." Jovi said. Michael cast a glare at the Slowpoke. It wasn't powerful enough to take one of ursaring's attacks so he decided on using a different pokémon. He took out ursaring's poké ball and recalled it, drawing another poké ball at the same time.

"Jovi, you handle the mankey. I'll weaken the Slowpoke. Go jumpluff!" Michael spoke, throwing the second poké ball onto the field. When it opened, a jumpluff popped out, but it was different. For one thing, it was pink with purple cotton balls rather than its usual color and it shined when it appeared. Jovi looked at the jumpluff with wide-eyes, but quickly returned her attention to the battle.

"Clefairy, shadow metronome!" Jovi instructed. Clefairy began waving its arms and powered up. Once the attack was powered up, a shadowy aura descended into the ground. A split second later, spikes made of shadow appeared under both the slowpoke and the mankey. The slowpoke was largely unaffected but the mankey was knocked off its feet and looked seriously wounded, but it was still able to battle.

"Mankey, use Karate chop on that clefairy!" Brendan instructed. The mankey focused what energy it had left and gave clefairy a full powered karate chop, scoring a critical hit and KOing clefairy instantly. Jovi sighed and recalled it.

"You did well clefairy, thank you." Jovi put the poké ball away and then pulled out a great ball. "Michael, I'm using my newest shadow pokémon. Go onix!" Jovi threw the great ball. A moment later, onix came out with a mighty roar, giving the mankey a fright. Michael's jumpluff didn't seem intimidated and the slowpoke didn't react at all.

"Slowpoke, use shadow wave!" Alex instructed. The slowpoke produced a shadowy aura from its mouth and fired it at both onix and jumpluff. Onix was barely affected and jumpluff seemed to shrug the damage off.

"Jumpluff, use sleep powder on Slowpoke!" Michael instructed. His jumpluff gave a happy cry and released a cloud of green dust from its cotton buds. The dust swarmed around slowpoke and it was very quickly sent to sleep. Alex began to fume but didn't say anything.

"Onix, use shadow rush on mankey!" Jovi commanded. Onix roared again and rushed at mankey. The attack landed and scored an instant KO. All that was left was the slowpoke. Brendan recalled mankey and backed away slightly.

"Michael, do you have anything that could weaken slowpoke slightly without knocking it out?" Jovi asked her brother. Michael nodded.

"Watch this. Jumpluff, leech seed!" Michael instructed. Jumpluff built up energy and fired a seed at the sleeping slowpoke. The seed hit and vines sprouted, trapping slowpoke. Now it was Jovi's turn. She loaded a net ball into the snag machine and activated it.

"Net ball, go!" Jovi threw the net ball as she shouted these words. The ball hit its mark ad drew the slowpoke in. The ball then began to rock from side to side, eventually locking and teleporting to Jovi's storage system.

"We lost?! IMPOSSIBLE!" Both Alex and Brendan shouted while Michael and Jovi did a high five. Jovi quickly recalled onix before it could do any damage while jumpluff hopped over into Michael's arms.

"Jumpluff, great job." Michael praised while petting the pokémon. Jumpluff gave a happy cry before Michael recalled it and turned to face the two cipher goons. "You lost, so go away." Alex and Brendan didn't move.

"Why should we? We were told to recover the shadow pokémon, and we won't move until we get them!" Alex shouted. Michael gave a sigh and pulled the master ball form his necklace.

"Then you leave me with no choice. Lugia, come out and use psycho boost!" Michael threw the ball that contained lugia. The moment it came out, it fired out a rainbow colored blast of psychic energy from its mouth. Alex and Brendan then figured out who Michael was upon seeing lugia, but it was too late. The blast hit the ground just in front of Alex and Brendan, blowing them and the vehicle they had come in far away and leaving a total of 3,580 in prize money on the floor.


End file.
